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OXFORDSHIRE 


ANNALS. 




BY 




JOHN MARRIOTT DAVENPORT 


F.S.A. 


CLERK OF THE PEACE 




OF THE 




COUNTY OF OXFORD. 




1869. 





)> n -rv \% 



205449 






TO 



HIS GRACE 



JOHN WINSTON DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH 

K. G. 

LORD LIEUTENANT and CUSTOS ROTULORUM 



COUNTY OF OXFORD, 

THESE PAGES ARE INSCRIBED, AS A SMALL 

TRIBUTE OF RESPECT, BY 

HIS grace's VERY OBEDIENT, HUMBLE SERVANT 

THE COMPILER. 



T 



'HE kindness and consideration with which the 
little Book "Lords Lieutenant and High 
Sheriffs of Oxfordshire" was received, have induced 
its Compiler to extend the catena of Oxfordshire 
Annals ; and he now therefore presents the following 
links ; — with the further object of connecting the 
present with the past. 

Quicquid sub terra est, in apricum proferet setas ; 
Derbdiet condctque nitentia. Hor. I Ep. 6, i\. 



Oxford 
March 1869. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Sovereigns and Princes connected with Oxfordshire .. I. 

Judges of the Land, whose County was Oxfordshire, 

either Native or Adopted 55. 

Members of Parliament for the County 81. 

The Chairmen of Quarter Sessions 105. 

The County Court Judges 1 1 1. 

The Revising Barristers 115. 

Clerks of the Peace 121. 



OXFORDSHIRE 



ANNALS. 



OXFORDSHIRE 
AN N ALS. 



SOVEREIGNS and PRINCES 

CONNECTED, BY BIRTH OR RESIDENCE, WITH THE 

COUNTY OF OXFORD. 



ENGLAND UNDER THE ROMANS. 

~^HE castellated Palace of the Barons of Saint Walery, at 

•** Beckley, is said to have been the residence of Richard, 

King of the Romans. The Roman Road from Alchester 

to Wallingford, passed through Beckley. Its Manor was 

subsequently part of the private property of King Alfred. 

It may be interesting to mention that Julius Cjesar, (the 
famous Roman General, and subsequently Emperor of Rome), 
crossed the River, Tamise, near Wallingford, and passed through 
Oxford, on his route to a Battle fought at Cirencester. 

ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD. 

Dorchester had very early associations with Royalty. Its 
name appears to have been derived from Ydcop (Water, — 
corrupted by the Britons into Dor), and Castrum, the Roman 
word for City. In the sixth Century King Kynegils was 
baptized at Dorchester, Oswald, King of the Northumbrians, 
being His Godfather. And in 636 Cwichelm (Son of King 

Kynegils 



Kynegils), was baptized at Dorchester. From this Prince, the 
Village of Cuxham derived its name. In 639 King Cuthred 
was baptized at Dorchester. These Baptisms took place in the 
River, Baptistries or Fonts not having been yet introduced. 

St. Edwold (younger Brother to St. Edmund, King of the 
East Angles), declined the Crown which descended to Him of 
right, upon St. Edmund's death ; and He retired to Dorchester, 
and to a Monastery there called Corn House, where He died 
and was buried in the year 871. 

Ethelred the First held a Witenagemote at Woodstock in 
the year 866. 

At an early part of the Anglo-Saxon period (after the century 
and a half's contest between the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons with 
the ancient Britons), several of the Kings of Mercia, (that one 
of the Seven States, or Heptarchy, which included the County of 
Oxford), resided in a Royal Castle at Benson (Besintone), which 
was a place of celebrity in the Saxon period of our history. It 
was wrested from the Celtic Britons by the Saxon Invaders in the 
year 571. And, from the Celtic connexion with Benson and its 
neighbourhood, may be traced the name of the Chiltern Hills 
and Hundreds. Celterne, in Saxon, signifies the habitation of 
the Celts ; and the Danes are described, in the Saxon Chronicle 
A.D. 1009, as ascending through Ciltern, and so to Oxford. 
Grimesdyke,(*) which signifies "the Ditch of the boundary," 
formed a line of separation between Wessex and Mercia; for 
it is remarkable that the first Parish on the northern frontier, in 
Oxfordshire, is called Newnham, (Newnham Murren) ; that 
is, the habitation of New Men ; such as the Mercians, or 
Middle Angles, were considered by their Saxon neighbours. 
For the same reason, a P'arm opposite " Homer," ( b ) is still 
called English ; that is, the habitation of the Angles. So 
extensive was the Manor of Benson, in ancient times, that the 
Church became the "Matrix Ecclesia," or Mother Church, of all 
the Churches and Chapels in this District, including that of 

(a) Or, the Ditch made by magic, 
(b) Hock-mere ; that is a high, or principal boundary. The name of the Father of 
Poesy is seen through the dim mist of Celtic, and Cimmerian antiquities. No wonder 
that nineteen Cities disputed the place of his nativity. The name is not Greek, but 
Celtic. 

Henley 



Henley on Thames. The Royal Manor of Benson was granted, 

by Patent, 1st of King John, with the Town of Henley, to 
Robert de Harcourt j whence the name of Ilareourt Hill. 

The Chiltern Hills are comprised in the range of Chalk 
nding from Norfolk to Dorsetshire. But the Chiltern 
HUNDREDS are composed of the three Hundreds of Desborough, 
Stoke, and Burnham, in Buckinghamshire, and four Hundreds 
and a half in Oxfordshire, — Pyrton, Binfield, Langtree, and 
Lewknor Hundreds, and Ewelme the half Hundred ; (called in 
Domesday Dimid Besinton, the half Hundred of Benson). 

The Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds was originally 
no Sinecure, but an Office of importance ; for the Steward, 
who was appointed by the Crown, was bound to maintain and 
protect the King's rights, liberties, and possessions throughout 
this extensive District. But Henry the Third having given the 
Honor of Wallingford to Richard, Earl of Cornwall, the Office 
of Steward became merged in the Constableship of the Castle 
of Wallingford ; and, the Crown Lands in this District having 
been sold by the Crown Commissioners, the historical Steward- 
ship is now merely nominal, and it passes, as a matter of course, 
or as an equivocal compliment, to any Member of Parliament 
who, during a Session, desires to vacate his seat. 

The Castle and Honor of Wallingford were, by Act of Parlia- 
ment 32nd Henry VIII, annexed to the Manor of Ewelme, under 
the Title of the Honor of Ewelme, of which Thomas Augustus 
Wolstenholme, Earl of Macclesfield is now the Lord, — his 
Ancestor (George 4th Earl), having purchased it of the Crown 
in 1821. 

Alfred the Great (who began to reign in 871) and His three 
Sons, long resided in Oxford ; and, it is believed, in a Castle, 
with a Keep Tower (built by OfFa, King of Mercia), on part of 
the future site of the " Oxford Castle," erected by Robert 
D'Oyley, in the fifth year after the Conquest; — with reference to 
which Fortress, Rossus says " magnis aggestis molibus extruxit" Sec. 
Alfred also resided in the Manor House, or Palace, at Woodstock, 
and there translated Boethius. 

Alfred is the reputed Founder, in the year 872, of University 
College, Oxford. Certain it is that He gave life to the then 

nucleus 



nucleus of an University. He built three Colleges, or Halls. 
The first for Grammar, situate near the East Gate of the City, 
and (because it was instituted for the lowest of the Sciences), 
called Parva Universitatis Aula ; the second for logic and 
philosophy, to which Alfred gave the name of Aula minor 
Universitatis. This Hall was in School Street, a site now forming 
part of Brasenose College. And the third Hall was for Divinity 
Students, and occupied part of the larger quadrangle of the present 
University College ; and this Alfred called Aula magna 
Universitatis. 

Alfred's example gave rise to many more Halls being built ; — 
which Halls are now, after the lapse of a thousand years, either 
merged in Colleges, or buried in oblivion. 

King Alfred held one of His first Councils (a Witenagemote) 
at Shifford, near Bampton, in the year 885. There sate at it 
" many Thanes, many Bishops, and many learned Men, wise 
Earls, and Knights." A piece of ground at Shifford is still called 
c Court Close.' And a neighbouring field at Aston is l Kinsey,' 
(King's way). 

Edward the Elder (Son of King Alfred), was a Student 
of the University, and, " from His Father's example and 
instruction, proved a great friend to Learning and learned Men." 
Anthony Wood. 

Prince Ethelward (another son of Alfred) was styled Vir 
literatisshnns et philosophus in Academia Oxon. "He preserved the 
University in a very flourishing condition." 

Athelstan (King in succession to his Father, Edward the 
Elder), was educated in the University of Oxford. He held a 
Witenagemote at Dorchester in the year 958. 

Ethelred the Second (surnamed the Unready), held Wite- 
nagemotes in Oxford in the year 1002, and at Eynsham in 1009. 
He had Royal Residences at Headington, and Islip. And He 
held a Council, or Parliament, at Woodstock. The site of the 
Palace at Headington may still be identified by a Field called 
Court Close. And Corn for the Royal Household was ground 
at "King's Mill," near Magdalen College Water Walks. 

During 



During Ethelred's Reign the Danes burnt the City of Oxford, 
in the year 1013, in retaliation for the general massacre of their 
Countrymen by order of that Monarch. And the City was 

again burnt by the Danes in 1032. 

Svein, or SwEYN, reigned in 1013-14; and, in that interval, 
to revenge the massacre of the Danes in Oxford, He set fire to 
the City, which was surrendered to Him. 

Edmund the Second (surnamed Ironside, from His great 
valour), was murdered at Oxford in 1016, by Duke Edric, and 
was buried at Glastonbury. 



THE DANISH DYNASTY. 

Canute (surnamed the Great), held Witenagemotes at Oxford 
in the years 10 18 and 1022, at which latter the Laws of England 
were first translated into Latin, and enjoined equally on His 
Danish as on His Saxon Subjects. And in 1026 He held a 
great Council at Oxford, at which the Edicts of King Edgar 
were confirmed. Canute lived several years in Oxford. He 
was an especial Friend to the Muses; and, in 1 031, He obtained 
from the Pope an exemption from the University for Taxes and 
Tribute. 

The custom of hanging up the armour of Kings and Nobles 
in Churches, came from Canute placing his Crown upon the 
head of the Crucifix at Winchester, after He found that He 
could not make the Sea obey Him. 

Harold the First (surnamed Harefoot, from his swiftness 
in running), was elected to be King at a Meeting of the Nobles 
of the Realm in Oxford. He lived in the Castle at Oxford, 
and His Coronation took place there in 1036, with circumstances 
of great magnificence. He held a Parliament in Oxford in 1036, 
and died there in 1040. History records of Him that, "besides 
violating the consecrated places of study and worship in Oxford, 
He robbed them of their revenues given by Alfred." 

RESTORATION 



RESTORATION OF THE ANGLO-SAXON 
DYNASTY. 

Edward the Third (surnamed the Confessor), was born 
A.D. 1004, in the Palace at Islip, built by His Father (King 
Ethelred the Second). Edward was crowned at Winchester 
nth April 1042. He was a Patron of Learning. "By this 
King's Laws the University of Oxford was entirely restored to 
all its Stipends formerly granted by King Alfred, and lately 
lost by the rapine of Harold." Ayllffe. 

NORMAN LINE. 

William the First (called the Conqueror), lived much at 
Oxford, soon after the Conquest. The Citizens refusing to 
submit to Him, He took Oxford by storm in 1067, and gave 
it to Robert D'Oyley. The King despoiled private Houses and 
Scholastic Halls, and invested D'Oyley with them. He also 
deprived of Exhibitions founded by King Alfred, such of the 
Scholars as refused to preach in the Norman, to the extinction 
of the Saxon language. But He at length found that His pre- 
judices did not avail, and He became reconciled to the University, 
and sent His youngest Son, Henry, (afterwards King Henry the 
First), to study there, "which gave great reputation to the place, 
and it became soon filled with Scholars." 

At the date of the Domesday Book, the King had a Mural 
Mansion ( a ) at Langlcy, in the Parish of Shipton under Wychwood 
(then called Scipton), it being one of the twenty mural Mansions 
which, in King Edward's time, had been the property of Earl 
Algars. 

William Rufus held a Conference at Oxford in 1088. 

Henry the First (surnamed Beauclerc, or the Scholar, the 
fourth Son of William the Conqueror, and the only one who 
was an Englishman by birth), was a Member of the University, 
and He built, and resided in Beaumont Palace in Oxford, about 

(a) Mural Mansions were so called from the power of the King to have the Walls 
repaired, when necessary, or when He commanded it. 

the 



7 

the same time as Osney Abbey was finished. He also In a great 
measure rebuilt the Royal Manor House, or Palace, at Woodstock, 

and inclosed the Park with a Wall and stocked it with wild 
Animals ("Lions, Leopards, strange spotted beasts, Porcupines, 
Camels, and such like"), it being the first walled Park( a ) in 
England. 

Henry also founded Saint Bartholomew's Hospital near to 
Oxford, on the border of Cowley Marsh, and endowed it for 
the reception of 12 leprous Persons, and a Chaplain. In the 
Reign of Edward the 2nd its constitution was altered, and, in 
the following Reign, at the suggestion of Adam de Brome, 
Almoner to the late King, the Hospital was, in 1328, conveyed 
to Oriel College. It was afterwards used by that Society as a 
place of retirement when pestilential diseases occurred in Oxford ; 
and in 1643 it was made a Pest House. During the Rebellion a 
large portion of the ancient Structure was destroyed by the 
Parliamentary Army, but, after the Civil War, rebuilt by Oriel 
College. 

HOUSE OF BLOIS. 

King Stephen, Grandson of William the Conqueror, resided 
at Beaumont Palace, in Oxford. He held a Parliament there 
in 1 136, when He abolished the Tax of Dane Gelt, and granted 
great immunities to the People. He held another Parliament 
there in 1139, when the Bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury were 
imprisoned in consequence of a quarrel which arose between 
their servants and those of the Earl of Brittany. He closely 
besieged the Empress Maud (his Niece) when residing in Oxford 
Castle. Her Father (Henry the First) had settled on her the 
succession to the Crown, but Stephen possessed it, and England, 
during the greater part of His Reign, was a continued scene of 
bloodshed and horror. Maud married first, Henry the Fifth, 
Emperor of Germany, and secondly Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count 
of Anjou, from whom came Henry the Second of England. 
Maud, aided by her half Brother Robert, landed in England to 



(a) Hen -de Knighton, p. 2,382. It is believed that the only previous walled 
Park was that at Watchingwell in the Isle of .Wight, made by King William 
the 1st. 

claim 



8 



claim the Crown, and gained the Battle of Lincoln 2nd February 
1 140. Stephen, after this defeat, was imprisoned in Bristol 
Castle, and Maud (Matilda) was crowned at Winchester 1141. 
She came in that year, in great state, from Winchester to Oxford, 
with many Barons, who had promised to protect her during 
the Earl of Gloucester's absence in France, whither he went 
to bring over Prince Henry. She took possession of Oxford 
Castle, and the homage of the City, and fixed Garrisons at 
Woodstock Palace, and Bampton Castle. Stephen, by His siege, 
kept the Empress shut up in Oxford Castle from Michaelmas 
to Christmas, for, finding the Castle impregnable, He endeavoured 
to compel the Castellans to surrender, for want of provisions. 
Maud however, was experienced in stratagems. She had escaped 
from Winchester Castle on a swift Horse, taking advantage of a 
pretended truce ; and she released herself from the Castle of 
Devizes by being conveyed in a Hearse as a Corpse ; and now 
at Oxford (it being Winter, and the ground covered with Snow), 
she escaped from the Castle in a white dress, walked over the 
frozen River, and on to Abingdon, and thence to Wallingford 
Castle. In 1 147 Maud was compelled to take refuge in 
Normandy, and Stephen resumed the Throne. Subsequently, 
in 1 153, it was agreed, at a meeting of Barons at Wallingford 
Castle, that Stephen should reign for life, and be succeeded 
in the Crown by Maud's son, Henry, Duke of Normandy. 
This agreement was confirmed at a Parliament held in Oxford 
in 1 154. 

PLANTAGENETS. 

Henry the Second (surnamed Fitz-Empress, from his 
Mother, and Curt, or Shortmantle, from his having introduced 
the fashion of short Coats into England), had Beaumont 
Palace in Oxford, but made the Palace at Woodstock His 
chief Residence ; and there He long secreted fair Rosamond 
Clifford, whose romantic adventures are so interwoven with the 
history of this Monarch. He held a Council at Oxford, against 
the Waldenses, in 1160; another in 1166, and a general 
Assembly there, in 1 1 77, at which He made His son John, 
King of Ireland. And in 1185 He held at Oxford the 
Parliament called Park amentum magnum. His two Sons, 

Richard 



Richard and John,(*! were born at Beaumont Palace, and both 
succeeded to the Crown in turn. The nuptials of the Lady 

Ermengard, Daughter ot Richard, Viscount Beaumont, Cousin 
to Henry the Second, with William, King of Scotland, — were 
celebrated at Woodstock Palace, with the utmost magnificence, 
for four successive days. 

Richard the First (surnamed Cceur de Lion, or Lion-hearted,), 
eldest surviving Son of Henry the Second, — was born at Beaumont 
Palace in Oxford, in 1157. He held a Council in Oxford. He 
reigned from 1189 to 1199, but He passed only four months of 
that time in England. His engagement with Saladin, Emperor 
of the East ; the Siege of Acre ; and the Battle of Gisors, will 
be ever memorable. At that Battle He gave the parole of it Dieu 
et mon droit" which has ever since been retained as the motto 
of the Royal Arms of England. 

John (surnamed Sansterre, or Lackland), Brother of Richard 
the First, was born at Beaumont Palace in Oxford, in 1166. 
He reigned from 1199 to 12 16, and held Parliaments in Oxford 
in 1203 and 1207. He affixed His Seal to Magna Charta, at 
Runnemede, 19th June 1215; He having previously, at Oxford, 
haughtily refused to grant the Petitions of the Barons. 

King John improved, and occasionally resided at the Royal 
House at Langley, (in the Parish of Shipton under Wychwood), 
called " King John's Palace." 



Henry the Third (surnamed Winchester), held Councils 
at Oxford in 1227, 1233, and 1247, and occasionally resided 
at Beaumont Palace in Oxford, and He lived much in the 
Palace at Woodstock, including the greater part of the year 1235. 
In 1238 He narrowly escaped assassination there by a Priest named 
Ribbaud. This man, who was either insane, or feigned to be so, 
climbed through a window at night to the Chamber of the King 
and Queen. He was discovered while entering, by a devout 
woman, Margaret Byet, and taken to Oxford, and torn to pieces 
by Horses. ( b ) In 1256, at the Feast of the Assumption of the 
Virgin Mary, the King came to Woodstock, and invited thither 



(a) One ancient Writer states that John was born at Bampton Castle, 
(b) Cron. Tho. Wilkes, sub. an. 



Alexander 



IO 



Alexander, King of Scots, and most of the English Nobility, 
whom he entertained with great variety and pomp.( a ) Henry the 
Third held the Parliament at Oxford which first gave occasion 
to the Barons Wars. And in 1257 the King held at Oxford 
the Parliament which was called P arliamentum Insanum. The 
Regulations then made were denominated the Statutes of Oxford, 
and by them the Government of the Kingdom was transferred from 
Henry the Third to twenty four Commissioners (twelve chosen 
by Henry and twelve by the Barons), of whom Simon de Montfort, 
Earl of Leicester, was the President. In 1264 Henry expelled 
the Students from Oxford, most of them being of the Earl of 
Leicester's Party. 

Edward the First (surnamed Longshanks), resided occa- 
sionally at the Palace at Woodstock. And His Son, Prince 
Edmund, was born there in 1301. Edward called a Parliament 
at Woodstock in 1275. And mention is made of Acts of this 
King at Woodstock, in Seldon's History of Tithes, p. 356. 

Edmund, the second Son of King Edward the First, by 
Queen Margaret, was born in the Palace at Woodstock 5th 
August 1 30 1. He was surnamed Edmund of Woodstock, and 
created Earl of Kent by his half Brother King Edward the 
Second. For his endeavours to rescue Edward from Imprison- 
ment, and restore Him to the Crown, Edmund was beheaded at 
Winchester in 1329. 

Edward the Third (surnamed Windsor), was educated in 
the University of Oxford, under the tuition of Walter Burley. 
And He conferred many privileges upon the University. He 
was especially a Benefactor of Queen's College, and Oriel 
College, to which latter Society He gave a Mansion on the site of 
the present College. His Father (Edward the Second) was the 
Founder of the original College. He passed the first years of 
His marriage principally at Woodstock, and was always afterwards 
much attached to this regal abode. He held a Parliament at 
Oxford in the fourth year of His reign. 

Philippa, Queen of Edward the Third, co-operated with 
Robert de Eglesfeld, (who was Her Confessor), in the foundation 



of Queen's College, Oxford, which was so called at Her request ; 
and She commended it to the support and protection of all future 
Queens Consort of England. 

Edward, eldest Son of King Edward the Third, (surnamed 
the Black Prince, from the colour of his Armour)., was born at 
the Palace at Woodstock 15th June 1330. He was one of the 
earliest Members of Queen's College, Oxford. The King 
conferred pensions for life upon the Prince's Nurse, Joan de 
Oxford, and his Rocker, Maud Plumpton. This Prince was, 
as a child, nursed at, and occasionally resided in a House at Old 
Woodstock, called Prince's Place, still distinguishable by an 
angular stone Chimney of curious construction. He was Com- 
mandant, under his Father, at the Battle of Crecy, in 1346. 
The Order of the Garter was instituted in 1350 ; and three 
Ostrich feathers, with the words Ich Dten (I serve), were in- 
troduced as the Prince of Wales's Motto. They were on the 
helmet of the blind King of Bohemia who fell at Crecy, fighting 
on the side of the French. 

Thomas, seventh Son of King Edward the Third (surnamed 
Thomas of Woodstock), was born in the Palace at Woodstock 
7th January 1355. He afterwards became Earl of Buckingham, 
and ultimately Duke of Gloucester. To express the joy of the 
King, at the birth of this Prince, He held solemn Jousts and 
Tournaments at Woodstock, to which the Nobility resorted in 
great numbers. ( a ) At Radcot Bridge, in Oxfordshire, Thomas 
of Woodstock, with the Duke of Gloucester and Henry Earl of 
Derby (afterwards Henry the Fourth), defeated Thomas de Vere, 
Earl of Oxford and Marquis of Dublin, who with difficulty 
saved his life by swimming across the Isis. 

Of the three Royal Personages last noticed as born at 
Woodstock, not one ascended the Throne. 

Richard the Second (surnamed Bordeaux), held Parliaments 
at Oxford in 1382, and 1383. He frequently lived at the Palace 
at Woodstock, and, at a Christmas Festivity and Tournament in 
His Reign, (1391) John Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, was slain. 

(a) Barnes 1 History of Edward III. p. 488. 

HOUSE 



12 

HOUSE OF LANCASTER. 

(RED ROSE). 

Henry the Fourth made Oxford and Woodstock His head 
quarters in the year 1400, at the period of the Conspiracy to 
restore Richard the Second to the Throne. And the heads of the 
Duke of Surrey and the Earl of Salisbury, cut off at Cirencester, 
were conveyed on long poles to King Henry at Oxford, he then 
lodging there in the Abbey of the Carmelites. This Abbey 
was the former Beaumont Palace, Edward the Second having 
given it to the Carmelites. Many Knights and Esquires were 
beheaded in Oxford Castle at this eventful time. 

Henry the Fifth (surnamed Monmouth), born 9th August 
1388, and crowned 16th April 1413, was educated at Queen's 
College, Oxford, under the tuition of His Relative, Cardinal 
Beaufort, and resided in Rooms in the College. Two ancient 
Paintings of Him, in glass, still exist at Queen's, taken from the 
" Prince's Room," in the old College ; of which Room there 
exists a sketch. He was 

"The Victor of His foes, and of Himself." 
This is His high commendation in the Inscription still preserved 
in the north Window of the Library at Queen's ; the whole of 
which, according to Wood, before its removal from the Window 
of the Royal Chamber, ran thus. 

In pcrpctuam Rci mcmoriam. 

Impcrator Bri tannine, 

Triumphator Gallise, 

Hostium Victor ct Sui. 
Hcnricus V. 

Parvi Hujus Cubiculi 

Olim magnus Incola. 

Henry the Fifth gained the Battle of Agincourt 25th October 
1415.(3) He died at Vincennes 31st August 1422. 

(a) Advantage should be taken of any accidental coincidences in figures or names 
to fix the dates of facts chronologically in the memory. For instance, — 1 21 5 is the 
date of Magna Charta ; 141 5, that of the Battle of Agincourt ; and 1815 of Waterloo. 
Again, 1588 is the year of the destruction of the Spanish Armada ; and 1688 of 
the great Revolution. And the beginning of the 16th Century (15 17) is signalised 
by the Reformation ; that of the 17th (1603), by the union of the Crowns of England 
and Scotland; that of the 18th (1706), by the union of the same Kingdoms; and 
that of the 19th (1801), by the union of the Parliaments of England and Ireland. 

Henry 



Henry thk Sixth (surnamed Windsor), was educated at 
Oxford. ( a ) He founded Eton College, and King's College, 

Cambridge. He visited at Oxford in July 1437. 



HOUSE OF YORK. 

% 

(WHITE ROSE). 

Edward the Fourth (Earl of March), resided frequently 
at the Palace at Langley. And it was when hunting, in 
Wychwood Forest, that He first met, and became enamoured 
with His future Queen, Lady Elizabeth Grey, Daughter of Sir 
Richard Woodville, and Widow of Sir John Grey, who was 
slain in the second Battle of Saint Albans. The King married 
her, despite the fact that He was already under promise of 
alliance to the Princess Bonne of Savoy. This was the second 
instance, since the Conquest, of an English King having married 
a Subject. John was the first example. Owing to its contiguity 
to the Forest of Wychwood, Langley Palace was occasionally 
the residence of the Royal Family during those many ages in 
which a noble and almost romantic passion for the Chase 
universally prevailed, and which displayed, in the most striking 
manner, the pristine prowess of the English Huntsman. Langley 
Palace is in the Parish of Shipton under Wychwood, and in the 
Register of Burials of that Parish in the early part of the 
seventeenth Century, is an entry of a Person being drowned in 
the Evenlode, " the Court then being at. Langley." 

Edward the Fourth was an encourager of Literature, and a 
zealous Friend of the University of Oxford ; the Title of 
Protector of which He assumed. In 148 1 the King and 
Queen, upon a visit to Oxford, occupied Rooms at Magdalen 
College. They arrived at the College from Woodstock Palace, 
and were received by the Founder, the President, and other 
Dignitaries, with great circumstance. 

Edward the Fourth was a Benefactor of Queen's College. 

Richard the Third paid a visit to Oxford soon after His 
assumption of the Regal dignity ; and He afterwards passed an 

(a) Ayl\ffeNo\. I p. 166. Sed quaere r- 

Act 



!4 

Act empowering the University to export or import Books at 
pleasure. He held His Court at Magdalen College, and heard 
disputations in the Hall. He was feasted there royally, and 
recognized the cheer of His hosts by a present of fat Bucks from 
His Forest. 



HOUSE OF TUDOR. 

(UNION OF THE WHITE AND RED ROSES). 

Henry the Seventh (surnamed Tudor). The Palace at 
Woodstock was a favorite residence of Henry the Seventh. He 
was fond of having Ludi, or Court Masqueradings ; and a 
celebrated one, entitled " The Negramansir," (in which the 
characters were a Neccromancer, the Devil, a Notary, Simony, 
and Avarice), was played before the King and other Estates 
at Woodstock on Palm Sunday 150 1. Oxford was visited by 
the Plague and malignant Fevers during Henry the Seventh's 
Reign ; and it was also the scene of successive commotions 
and tumults. 

The King's eldest Son, Arthur, Prince of Wales, heir apparent 
to the Throne, and the elder Brother of Henry the VHIth (whose 
birth was welcomed as the probable cause of the restoration of peace 
between the Houses of York and Lancaster), was a Member 
of Magdalen College, Oxford. But, remembering that it was 
only in the young Prince's 15th year that he was married to 
Catherine of Arragon (the future Wife of Henry the VHIth), and 
that he died in the fifth month after his marriage (2nd April 
1502), it is not possible that he could have resided long in 
Oxford. However, he is said to have made great proficiency 
in learning, and an array of Classical Authors whom he studied, 
is quoted by Speed. After his Marriage, Prince Arthur 
visited Oxford on his way to join the Princess at Ludlow 
Castle, and his Entertainment at Magdalen College on this 
occasion is thus recorded. u He was lodged in the Apartments 
of the President ; Rushes were provided for the Prince's 
bedchamber ; he was treated with a brace of Pike and a 
brace of Tench : both his Highness and his Train received 
presents of Gloves, and were refreshed with red wine, claret, 
and sack." 

Henry 



i 5 

Henry the Eighth is regarded as the Pounder of Christ 
Church, Oxford, He having completed the work begun by 
Cardinal Wolsey, In the second year of His Reign (1510) the 
KiniX, "with divers Nobles, came to Oxford, for whose reception 
an Act was purposely appointed. " In 1518 the King, and Queen 
Catherine, sojourned at Abingdon, in consequence of the sweating 
sickness raging in London ; and the University Authorities did 
homage to their Majesties at Abingdon. The Queen, accompanied 
by Wolsey, paid a visit to Oxford at this period. Henry the 
Eighth, in 1532, paid His first Royal visit to Christ Church, 
after the death of Wolsey, and was sumptuously entertained. A 
"great solemnity was made at the reception of the King." 
Anthony JVood. And Wood records that in 1543, " The King's 
coming to Oxon was much expected this year, but He came 
not." 

Henry resided occasionally at the Palace at Woodstock, and 
there an attempt was made on his life by William Morisco. 

In the Reign of Henry the Eighth, Oxford became the seat of 
one of the six new Bishoprics created by that Monarch. Ayliffe 
describes Him as " undoubtedly the most munificent Patron of 
Learning among all our Princes." 

" On the 15th of July 1548 (2 Edward Vlth) Queen 
Catherine (Widow of Henry the Vlllth) was, with great 
solemnity, received into Magdalen College, by the Vice Chancellor 
and Scholars of the University, especially by the Venerable Dr. 
Owen Oglethorpe, President, with the Scholars of that College, 
and there entertained with a most sumptuous Banquet, to the 
great honor of that Society." A. Wood. 

MARY. 



The second Parliament of Queen Mary was summoned to 
meet at Oxford, whence it was adjourned to Westminster. 

In the Reign of Mary, Oxford was the scene of the Martyrdom 
of Bishops Latimer and Ridley, for the alleged crimes of heresy 
and treason ; and, a few months after, Archbishop Cranmer 
suffered death by the like martyrdom of being burnt at the Stake, 
in Broad Street, Oxford. To commemorate this sad and 
historical tragedy, the effigial Cross (built from the design of 

the 



i6 



the Eleanor Crosses), was, in 1841, erected at the south end 
of Saint Giles' Street, — the chief Promoter of which splendid 
Memorial was the Reverend Vaughan Thomas. 

ELIZABETH. 

In the early part of Queen Mary's Reign of five years, Her 
Sister, the Princess Elizabeth, was accused of participation in the 
Conspiracy in favour of Lady Jane Grey's accession to the 
Throne ; and the future great Queen of England was within 
a hair's breadth of the Block upon which Jane Grey had 
perished. For this alleged conspiracy, and her opposition to 
Queen Mary's Religious opinions, Elizabeth was committed 
to the Tower on the nth of March 1554; and, on the 19th 
of May, was removed, in charge of the Lord Williams and Sir 
Henry Bedingfield, to the Palace at Woodstock. On the 
journey thither, Elizabeth was entertained by Lord Williams 
at his Mansion at Rycot. This visit, though carrying with it 
a show of honour, was, in truth, a confinement. Lord Williams 
however, gracefully sinking the character of a watchful Super- 
intendent in that of a Host, introduced the Princess to a large 
circle of Nobility and Gentry whom he had invited to Rycot 
to bid her welcome. The severe and suspicious temper of 
Bedingfield took umbrage at the sight of such an Assemblage, 
and he ordered his Soldiers to keep strict watch, insisting also that 
none of the Guests should be permitted to pass the night in 
the House ; and he asked Lord Williams if he were aware of 
the Consequences of thus entertaining the Queen's Prisoner ? 
To which my Lord answered that he well knew what he did, 
and that her Grace might, and should be ?nerry in his House. 
Intelligence however, had no sooner reached the Court of the 
reception afforded to the Princess at Rycot, than directions arrived 
for her removal to Woodstock. Here, under the harsher 
inspection of Bedingfield, she found herself once more a Prisoner. 
No Visitor was permitted to approach. The Doors were 
dosed upon her as in the Tower, and a Military Guard again 
kept watch around the walls both day and night. 

Elizabeth, as Princess, was confined at Woodstock till 
April 1555, — when she was removed to Hatfield. Lord Williams 
petitioned the Queen to be permitted to take the Princess to 

Rycot 



'7 

Rycot, and offered large bail for her sate keeping; but the 
petition was refused. She complained of the severity of her 
treatment at Woodstock, and called Sir Henry Bedingfield 
her Gaoler. The Room chiefly used by the Princess was in 
the part of the Palace (the Gatehouse), which was hist destroyed; 
and the only vestige* now of the Princess' name is the Island in 
Blenheim Lake, still called Elizabeth's Island. 

Elizabeth, when Queen, always addressed Lord Williams' 
Mother by the singular term of endearment, my own Crow. 

When Elizabeth came to the Crown, She (in September 1566) 
visited Oxford, and afterwards voluntarily honored Rycot for a 
short time with Her presence and abode. The Queen resided 
at Christ Church for a week, and daily attended the public 
exercises in the University Schools. Her Majesty came to 
Oxford from Woodstock, with a noble retinue, and, at the 
boundary of the University Liberties, was met by Dudley, Earl 
of Leicester, the Chancellor, and the Heads of Houses in their 
scarlet Robes. Marbeck, the public Orator, delivered an 
Oration, beginning ^Multa sunt divine erga nos bonitatisj &c. ; 
and, at the end, the Queen said to him, 'We have heard of you 
before, but now We know you.' On approaching Oxford, the 
Mayor (Mr. Thomas Willyams), with the Aldermen and others, 
received Her Majesty, and, in the name of the City, presented to 
Her a silver gilt Cup, filled with Coins of old Gold. On arriving 
at the North Gate, Robert Deale of New College made an 
Oration, in the name of all the Undergraduates, who lined the 
Street from the Gate to Carfax, and, kneeling, exclaimed ^Vivat 
Regina* as the Queen passed ; She replying 'Gratias ago, gratias 
ago.'' At Carfax a Greek Oration was delivered by Mr. 
Lawrence, the Regius Professor ; after which the Queen 
proceeded to Christ Church, between lines of Masters and 
Bachelors. Upon the Gates and Walls of the College were Latin 
and Greek verses, of which the following, by Dr. James Calfhill, 
one of the Canons, — is a specimen. 

Inclyta foeminei Virgo quae gloria sexus, 
Et generis decus ct gentis Regina Britannia: 
Grata venis nobis, perfectaque gaudia portas, 
Imperfecta tui subiens monumenta parentis. 
On the following night was acted, in Christ Church Hall, 
a Latin Play, called Marcus Geminus, which was attended by 
all the Nobility, and the Spanish Ambassador, (who lodged at 

Merton 



i8 



Merton College), but the Queen was too fatigued to be present. 
She however, the next evening heard, in the Hall, an English 
Play named Palaemon, or Palamon and Arcyte, and laughed 
heartily at it, giving the Author (Mr. Richard Edwards), great 
thanks. The Evening however, was marred by part of the Stage 
falling, and killing three persons (a Scholar of St. Mary Hall, 
a Brewer, and the Cook of Corpus), and injuring others. After 
the interval of a day, the Queen attended another Play in Christ 
Church Hall. In the course of it was acted a cry of Hounds upon 
the train of a Fox in the hunting of Theseus, with which the 
Undergraduates (who stood in the Windows), were so much 
taken that they cried out ' Now, now — there, there — he's caught, 
he's caught.' All which the Queen beholding said c Oh, 
excellent ! those Boys in very troth are ready to leap out of 
the windows to follow the hounds.' On the following night a 
Latin Tragedy, called Progne, written by Canon James Calfhill, 
was acted before the Queen and Her Court in Christ Church 
Hall. On the seventh day the Queen left Oxford for Rycot, 
a great procession accompanying Her from Christ Church ; and 
on reaching Magdalen Bridge, the High Steward of the City 
(Sir Francis Knollys), informed Her that the City Liberties 
extended no farther, whereupon She bid farewell, with many 
thanks, to the Mayor and his Brethren ; but the University 
Authorities attended Her Majesty as far as Shotover House. 
There the Earl of Leicester (Chancellor of the University) told 
Her that the University Liberties reached no farther that way ; 
whereupon Mr. Roger Marbeck delivered an eloquent Oration 
to the Queen, containing many passages relating to learning, and 
the encouragement of it by Her Majesty ; which, being concluded, 
the Queen gave him Her hand to kiss, with many thanks to the 
whole University, speaking in these words, with Her face towards 
Oxford : " Farewell the learned University of Oxford, farewell my 
good Subjects there, farewell my dear Scholars ; and pray God 
prosper your studies ; farewell, farewell." The Obelisk in view of 
the present Mansion was built to commemorate Queen Elizabeth's 
visit, and to mark the site of the former House. There are several 
traditions as to the origin of " Shotover ;" but the one most 
accredited is "Chateau Vert." From Shotover, the Queen, 
with Her Train, rode to Rycot, then the Seat of Sir Henry 
Norreys, and made there a short stay. The Apartment 
in which the Queen then lodged was ever after distinguished, 

and 



'9 



and known in the Family, as Queen Elizabeth's Chamber. The 

Tower of which this Chamber is a part, is still standing; as is 
Rvcot Church, in which is a Pew called Queen Elizabeth's 
Pew. 

In August 1572 Queen Elizabeth was in residence at 
Woodstock Palace, and the University did homage to Her there, 
and presented gloves. 

The Queen again visited Oxford in 1574, in compliment to 
the Earl of Leicester, Chancellor of the University. Again in 
1575, when She was residing at Woodstock. Again, Oxford 
and Rycot in 159 1. And Oxford in 1592. This was the 
Queen's last visit to Oxford. A Divinity Act was kept before 
Her, on this question, Whether it be lawful to dissemble in 
matters of Religion ? " One of the Opponents endeavoured 
to prove the affirmative by his own example, who then did what 
was lawful, and yet he dissembled in disputing against the truth ; 
the Queen being well pleased at the wittiness of the argument. 
Dr. Westphaling (who had divers years been Bishop of Hereford), 
coming then to Oxford, closed all with a learned determination j 
wherein no fault, except somewhat too copious (not to say 
tedious), at that time, Her Majesty intending that night to 
make a Speech, and thereby disappointed. Next day Her 
Highness made a Latin Oration to the Heads of Houses on the 
same token. She therein gave a check to Dr. Reynolds for his 
nonconformity, in the midst whereof, perceiving the old Lord 
Burleigh stand by, with his lame legs, She would not proceed 
till She saw him provided of a stool, and then fell to Her speech 
again, as sensible of no interruption, having the command as 
well of Her Latin tongue, as of Her Loyal Subjects." Fuller's 
Church History^ Book ix. Cent. xvi. 

To Fuller's record it may be added that the Queen came, on 
this occasion, with a splendid retinue from Woodstock, and was 
met, with great array and circumstance, near Woolvercot, by 
the University, and in St. Giles's by the City Authorities ; each 
Body presenting to Her Majesty a silver gilt Cup. The Queen 
lodged at Christ Church for six days, and the same Ceremonies 
were observed as at the Royal visit in 1566. On one of the 
days the Queen and Her Court dined in Merton College Hall ; 
and, after the Banquet, Divinity Disputations were held by the 
Fellows on the question 

An dissentiones civium sint utiles Reipublicae ? 

On 



20 



On leaving Oxford, the Queen was again escorted as far as 
Shotover, and there, on parting with the University Authorities, 
exclaimed " Farewell, farewell dear Oxford ; God bless thee, 
and increase thy Sons in number, holiness, and virtue." And 
Her Majesty proceeded to Rycot. 

To Queen Elizabeth, the homage of Learning was particularly 
grateful, and hence She visited Oxford frequently in order to 
receive it. She is enrolled as a Benefactor of the University. 



HOUSE OF STUART. 

JAMES THE FIRST. 

In the year of James the First's accession (1603), the 
Plague raged with so much violence in London that the 
King, with His Court, removed to Oxford, and was entertained 
at Christ Church, in order to be out of the sphere of the 
malignant influence of the Plague. But hither, in a short 
time, the malady most unfortunately followed, and great 
mortality ensued. Most of the Students fled into the country, 
and, in the City of Oxford, business was entirely suspended. 
The King again visited Oxford in 1609. 

Anne, the Queen of James the first, visited at Caversham 
House, on Her progress from Hampton Court to Bath, in 
16 1 3. Her Hosts were Lord and Lady Knollys, who 
entertained Her Majesty with Revels. And a gallant Masque 
was performed by the Lord Chamberlain's four Sons, and other 
young Noblemen, with Sir Henry Rich (created, by King James, 
Baron of Kensington), and the Earl of Holland. ( a ) In August 
16 14 the King visited Oxford, on His way to Woodstock. He 
went to the Bodleian Library, preceded by the University Bedels, 
and accompanied by many of the Nobility. On the following 
Sunday the Dean of Christ Church (Dr. William Goodwyn) 
preached before the King at Woodstock, taking as his text 
Jeremiah i. v. 10, " See, I have this day set Thee over the 
Nations, and over the Kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, 
and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant." 
From Woodstock the King went to Rycot, and was entertained 



(a) He built the fine old House at Kensington known as Holland House. 

there 



2 \ 



therewith great splendour. In August 1615 King James visited 

Oxford, on His way to Woodstock j when the Y ice-Chanccllor 
and Heads of Houses, and the City Authorities made their 
obeisance to His Majesty, and presented Him with very rich 
gloves. On this occasion, Prince Charles (afterwards Charles 
the First) accompanied the King, and was "honorably attended ; 
and, having examined the principal Libraries and Buildings, and 
been entertained with Ceremonies and Feasting suitable to his 
Dignity, he was pleased, in his own hand, to matriculate himself 
a Member of the University, with this motto, Si vis omnia 
subjicere, Subjice Te rationi. Carolus P." 

On the 22nd of August 16 16, King James joined the Queen 
at Woodstock Palace, and remained there till the 28th, when 
He went to Rycot ; and there He knighted Sir John Denham, 
Father of the Poet. During this visit to Woodstock, the King 
created the celebrated George Villiers (afterwards Duke of 
Buckingham), Baron of Whaddon, County of Buckingham, 
who was dressed, upon this occasion, in a Surcoat of scarlet 
velvet, the Lord Norreys carrying the robes of State, of the same 
velvet, before him, and Lord Compton the Coronet. He was 
introduced by the Lords Compton and Norreys, Lord Carew 
carrying the Trabea, or Robe of State, before him. The King 
received Villiers upon His Throne, the Queen and Prince 
Charles being present. Also, on the 28th of August, the King 
knighted, at Woodstock, Sir John Burgh, fifth son of Ulick, 
third Earl of Clanricarde, afterwards created Viscount Bourke of 
Clanmorris ; Sir Francis Rogers of Somersetshire ; Sir William 
Pope of Oxfordshire, (Son of Sir William Pope Baronet, 
afterwards Earl of Down), and Sir Richard Cecil of Northampton- 
shire, second Son of Thomas, first Earl of Exeter. 

In 162 1, King James, Prince Charles, and several of the 
Nobility visited Woodstock, to whom came the Vice-Chancellor, 
certain Doctors, and the Proctors, who, having been graciously 
received, returned to Oxford, leaving behind them many pairs 
of rich gloves, to be given to the King, the Prince, and the chief 
Attendants of the Court. 

The Wits of the University, anxious to show themselves 
before the King, resolved to perform a Comedy, written by 
Barton Holyday, (this Comedy was printed in 16 10, a second 
edition in 1618, and a third in 1630). Its plot was entirely 
figurative, .all the liberal arts being personated in it, and the 

Author 



22 



Author displayed great learning in the contexture of his Play, 
having introduced many things from the Ancients, particularly 
two Odes from Anacreon, which he inserted, one in his second, 
the other in his third Act. 

Of the Author, it need only be said that he was the Son of a 
Tailor, and born in the Parish of All Saints, Oxford, about 1593. 
He was entered early at Christ Church, in the time of Dr. Ravis, 
his Relation and Patron, and in 16 15 he took Orders. He had 
been noticed for his skill in Poetry and Oratory, and now 
distinguished himself so much by his eloquence and popularity 
as a Preacher, that he had two Benefices conferred upon him in the 
Diocese of Oxford. He visited Spain in 1618, as Chaplain to 
Sir Francis Stewart, who accompanied Count Gondemar home, 
after his first Embassy to England. Holyday afterwards became 
Chaplain to King Charles, and Archdeacon of Oxford, before 
1626. In 1642 he was made D.D. by Mandamus, at Oxford, 
and at Iffley he sheltered himself during the Rebellion. When 
the Royal party declined, he so far sided with the prevailing 
powers as to be inducted into the Rectory of Chilton, Berks ; for 
he had lost his Livings, and the profits of his Archdeaconry, which 
drew upon him much censure from his own Party. After the 
Restoration he quitted this Living and returned to Iffley to live 
on the Archdeaconry, where he died 2nd October 1661, and 
was buried in Christ Church Cathedral. He translated Juvenal, 
Persius, and Horace, and was the Author of numerous Sermons 
and Poems. 

In 1 62 1 James the First was splendidly entertained at 
Christ Church, and was present at the performance of Barton 
Holyday's Comedy of T^voyaixia^ or the Marriage of the Arts j 
which however, proved so little to His Majesty's taste, that He 
rose several times to go, but was prevented by the entreaties of 
His Courtiers, who represented to Him the mortification that 
His retiring would cause. The evident impatience however, of 
the Royal Auditor produced the following epigram. 

"At Christ Church Marriage done before the King, 
Lest that those mates should want an offering, 
The King Himself did offer, — what, I pray? 
He offered twice or thrice to go away." 
In August 1624, the King was residing at Woodstock Palace, 
where the Vice Chancellor of Oxford and the Heads of Houses 

waited 



-.; 

waited on His Majesty, on the 13rd of that month. On the 
25th the King, accompanied by the French Ambassador and 
other noble Personages, came from Woodstock to Oxford, and 
Degrees were conferred upon a number of them. The King, 
at this period, enjoyed great sport at Woodstock, in the hunting 
ot J Cropear,' a notorious Stag, whose death was solemnized 
with as much triumph as if it had been some great Conquest. 
On the 29th the King visited Shotover Lodge, and there knighted 
His Host Sir Timothy Tyrrell, and also Sir John Farmer of 
Oxfordshire. In March 1625 the King assembled a Parliament 
at Oxford, which was called P arliamentum vanum. The Lords, 
and Members of the Privy Council lodged at Christ Church. 
The House of Peers assembled in the larger Schools, and the 
Commons occupied the Divinity School. 

Prince Henry, the eldest Son of James the First, was a 
Member of Magdalen College, Oxford, but he died, in 16 12, 
at the ase of nineteen. 



CHARLES THE FIRST. 

Charles the First very often took refuge in the classic shades 
of Oxford. In the first year of His Reign (1625) the Parliament 
(in consequence of the Plague raging in London), was adjourned 
to Oxford, and assembled in Christ Church. And, on His way 
to Oxford, the King took up His abode for sometime at Rycot, 
(then the Mansion of the Widow of Francis Norreys, Viscount 
Thame, and Earl of Berkshire). A Proclamation for transferring 
the Receipts of His Majesty's Exchequer from Westminster to 
Richmond, is dated at Rycot, 31 July 1625. 

On the 19th of August 1629 the King, and Queen Henrietta, 
passed through Oxford on their route to Woodstock Palace. 
On the 23rd the Doctors and Proctors of the University went 
to Woodstock to give their Majesties a welcome ; and the public 
Orator delivered an Oration ; after which the University presented 
their Majesties with rich gloves, and Dr. Brett, the Warden of 
Merton College, received from the King the honour of 
Knighthood. On the following day the Ambassadors from the 
Low Countries and France, with several Nobles of England, 
came to see the University, which having done, they went to 

Merton 



24 

Merton College where, after they had been congratulated in 
an Oration, by a Fellow of that House, they were entertained 
with a sumptuous Banquet. 

On the 27th their Majesties left Woodstock, and, coming to 
Oxford, were met by the Mayor, Aldermen, and other Citizens, 
who presented to the King a fair gilt Bowl, and to the Queen 
a pair of rich Gloves ; after which they viewed Wadham College, 
and the public Library, at which places respectively Speeches 
were addressed to them. Afterwards, going on the Leads over 
the Schools, a proposal was made to pull down the residue of 
Cat Street, (that part between the Schools and Saint Mary's), 
to the end that certain Buildings should be there erected for the 
use of the University, intended to be chiefly done by Dr. Laud, 
Bishop of London ; and for that purpose a Terrier was made 
of all the Houses and Gardens in that space of ground, and sent 
to London to His Majesty. 

The Ceremonies at the Library being finished, the King, 
Queen, and all the Retinue went to Merton College where, being 
received by the Warden and the Society, at the Gate, (Mr. 
James Marsh, of that House, speaking before them), they were 
conducted into the College and royally entertained with a rich 
Banquet, at the College charge, in honor of their newly knighted 
Warden. His Majesty afterwards conferred the honor of 
knighthood on William Spencer of Yarnton, Esquire. 

On the 23rd of August 163 1 the King, having received a 
Petition from the Vice Chancellor as to certain " factious and 
disorderly courses" in the University, evinced in Sermons and 
otherwise, — heard the Cause Himself at Woodstock, in the 
presence of all the Lords of His Council, and having heard 
several Heads of Colleges on one side, and the impugned Parties 
on the other, — adjudicated that the Proctors should resign their 
Offices, and certain others be banished the University. And 
the Decree was afterwards committed to writing under the King's 
Signet. This Decree, amongst other things, ordained the 
Hebdomadal Board (or Council), which has ever since been 
held. Archbishop Laud's History of the Chancellorship of Oxford 
p. 44. 

On the 29th of August 1636 (the Plague raging in London), 
the King, the Queen, and their Court arrived at Oxford, from 
Woodstock. The Chancellor (Archbishop Laud), the Vice- 
Chancellor, and numerous Doctors and Masters went out to 

meet 



25 

meet the Royal Retinue. The Chancellor, accompanied by 
the Lord Treasurer (Bishop Juxon), the Bishop of Winchester 

(Dr. Walter Curie), the Bishop of Norwich (Dr. Matthew 
Wren) and the Bishop of Oxford (Dr. John Bancroft) rode in a 
Coach ; the Doctors and Masters on horseback, with foot cloths, 
preceded by the three Esquire Bedels. Having ridden as far 
as the Way leading to Aristotle's Well, the Procession made 
a halt. After an interval, came the King and Queen, Charles 
Prince Elector Palatine, and his Brother Prince Rupert, all in 
one Coach ; at whose appearance, the Chancellor, Treasurer, 
and Bishops, came out of their Coach, and the Doctors 
and Masters alighted, and, drawing near to that of the King, the 
V ice-Chancellor (with the rest all kneeling) spoke an eloquent 
Oration, occupying about a quarter of an hour. That being 
done, the Chancellor gave up the Bedels' staves to the King, 
and the Kins; a^ain to the Chancellor, and he to the Bedels. 
They then drew forward towards the City, and, being met 
by the Mayor, Aldermen, and certain Citizens on horseback 
(some having foot cloths), a Speech was spoken by the Recorder, 
and the Mace delivered up, and restored. That being done, 
they marched into the City, the Citizens leading the way, and, 
making a stand at St. John's College Gate, Mr. Thomas 
Atkinson, of that House, spoke another Speech to the King, 
very brief, and very much approved. Thence they went through 
Northgate Street (Corn Market) then by Quatre Vois (Carfax) 
and so through Fish Street (St. Aldate's), the sides of which 
were lined with Scholars of all degrees. 

Being come within Christ Church gate, Strode, the University 
Orator, saluted the Royal party with another Speech ; and after- 
wards the Chancellor, in the name of the University, presented to 
His Majesty a Bible in Folio, with a Velvet Cover richly embroi- 
dered with the King's Arms in the centre, and also a costly pair 
of Gloves ; to the Prince Elector, Hooker's Book of Ecclesiastical 
Polity, with Gloves ; and to his Brother, Prince Rupert, Caesar's 
Commentaries, in English, illustrated by the learned Explanations 
and Discourses of St. Clement Edmonds (printed in 1600, with 
a fine portrait of Caesar). After this the King accompanied 
the Queen to Her Lodging in Merton College, from whence 
coming instantly out, the Dean and Canons conducted His 
Majesty, with all the Lords, to the .Cathedral ; but before He 
entered, His Majesty knelt down at the large south Door, where, 

lifting 



26 



lifting up His hands and eyes, with His long left lock of hair 
(according to the then mode), shelving over His shoulder, 
performed His private devotions. That done, Dr. John Morris, 
one of the Canons, entertained Him with a short Speech. 
Thence the King proceeded into the Choir, and heard Divine 
Service ; which being concluded, the King was conducted to the 
Dean's Lodgings, where the Mayor and his Brethren waited upon 
His Majesty and presented to Him a Bowl, and certain Pieces of 
Gold in it. After the Royal Party had supped, they saw a Comedy 
acted in Christ Church Hall, written by Strode, the Orator, 
entitled, " Passions calmed, or the Settling of the Floating Island." 
A stage was erected, reaching from the upper end of the Hall 
almost to the hearthplace, and had on it three or four openings on 
each side, and partitions between them, much resembling the desks 
or studies in a Library, out of which the Actors presented them- 
selves. These partitions could be drawn in and out at pleasure, 
upon a sudden, and new ones thrust out in their places, according 
to the nature of the scene; whereupon were represented Churches, 
Dwelling-houses, Palaces, &c, which, for its variety, produced 
very great admiration. Over all was delicate painting, represent- 
ing the sky and clouds. At the upper end a great fair sheet of 
two leaves, that opened and shut without any visible help; within 
which was set forth the emblem of the whole play, in a very 
sumptuous manner. Therein was the perfect resemblance of 
the billows of the Sea rolling, and an artificial Island, with 
Churches and Houses, waving up and down and floating, as also 
Rocks, Trees, and Hills. Many other pieces of work and land- 
scape did also appear, and a Chair was also seen to come gliding 
on the Stage without any visible help. These representations being 
the first of the kind used on the English Stage, gave great content. 
And Anthony Wood remarks that " Posterity ought to know that 
what is now seen in the Play Houses in London, is originally due 
to the invention of Oxford Scholars." 

On the next day, the Prince Elector and Prince Rupert attended 
at the Convocation House and received the Degrees of Masters of 
Arts. And they were enrolled as Members of Saint John's 
College. In the Afternoon the Royal Party, with their Nobles, 
were entertained at dinner at Saint John's College. Archbishop 
Laud attended them up the Library stairs, where, as they ascended, 
certain Musicians above greeted them with a short Song, fitted 
and timed to the ascending the Staircase. In the Library 

the 



the Royal Part.- were welcomed to the College with a short 
Speech spoken by one of the Fellows, named Abraham \\ right. 

They then passed to the new Library lately built by the 
Chancellor, (Archbishop Laud), where the King, Queen, and Prince 

Elector sat down to dinner at one table, standing across at the 
upper or north end, and Prince Rupert, with all the Lords and 
Ladies, at a long table, reaching almost from one end to the other, 
at which all the Gallants and Beauties of the Kingdom seemed 
to meet. All other tables, to the number of thirteen, besides the 
said two, were disposed in the several chambers of the College and 
had Men and Scholars appointed to attend them. "I thank God," 
said the Chancellor, "I had the happiness that all things were in 
very good order, and that no man went out of the gates, Courtier 
or other, but contented, which was a happiness quite beyond 
expectation." Dinner being ended, they retired into several with- 
drawing Chambers, ( a ) and, in the meanwhile, the Chancellor 
caused the windows of the College Hall to be shut, candles lighted, 
and all things to be made ready for the Play, which was then to 
begin, called "the Hospital of Lovers," made for the most part by 
Mr. Guy Weld, Fellow of Saint John's College. The plot and 
action were merry and without offence, and gave a great deal of 
content. In the middle of the performance, the Chancellor 
ordered a short Banquet for the Royal Party, and the College was 
at that time so well furnished that they did not borrow any one 
Actor from any College in the University. The Play ended, the 
King and the Queen went to Christ Church, retired, and supped 
privately, and about eight o'clock went into the Common Hall, 
there to see another Comedy, called "the Royal Slave," made by 
Mr. William Cartwris;ht of that House. Within the Shuts were 
seen a curious Temple, and the Sun shining over it, a delightful 
Forest, and other prospects j also Villages, and men visibly appear- 
ing in them, going up and down, here and there, about their 
Business. The Interludes were represented with as much variety 
of scenes and motions as the great wit of Inigo Jones (well skilled 
in setting out a Court Mask to the best advantage), could command. 



In the year 1642, when the storm which had so long been 
gathering burst forth into Civil War, Oxford was selected by 

(a) A set of handsome Rooms is still called 'The King'o Rooms.' 

Kinc 



28 



King Charles as the place of His head quarters. Here the 
unhappy Monarch met only with loyalty, consolation, and assist- 
ance. Of the vast quantity of ancient silver plate belonging to the 
different Colleges, very little is remaining. It was voluntarily 
contributed for the supply of the King's necessities, and was coined 
into money at New Inn Hall. To this sacrifice was added a loan 
of money by the University exceeding Ten thousand pounds. 

During more than four years up to April 1646, the King 
resided, at frequent intervals, in Oxford. And Queen Henrietta 
occasionally joined His Majesty. The King was always lodged 
in the Deanery at Christ Church, and the Queen's apartments 
were in the House of the Warden of Merton College, (between 
which College and Christ Church a private way was formed for 
the time); and these Rooms are still known as the Queen's Rooms. 

Jesse records that on one occasion the King wishing to consult 
some Volume in the Bodleian Library, sent for it. The Librarian 
however, with simple fidelity to his office, informed the Royal 
Messenger that no Book, once received, was ever allowed to be 
taken from the Library. This being communicated to the King, 
He rose up, put on His hat, and went to refer to the Book in the 
Library. 

Prince Rupert had his Quarters in Magdalen College. And, 
before some of his daring enterprises, his Trumpets were heard 
sounding to horse through the quiet Cloisters of the College. 
A full length Portrait of Prince Rupert adorns one of the Walls 
of the College Hall. Lord Macaulay writes thus of Magdalen 
College : ct It would be difficult to name any Corporation in 
the Kingdom which had higher claims to the gratitude of the 
House of Stuart." 

In 1642, after the Battle of Edge Hill, — Banbury Castle, 
and Broughton Castle surrendered to the King, and Charges 
returned to Oxford ; whence He marched to Brentford, and, 
after the Fight there, returned with His Prisoners to Oxford. 
The Colleges at this time presented the King with nearly all that 
then remained of their Plate, and with all the money left in 
their several Treasuries. Edge Hill was the first great Battle of 
the War, and it is usual to recur to it as a Victory on the part of 
the King ; but me thinks that 

Victor uterque fuit t v ictus uterque fu it, 
is the more truthful verdict. In 



29 

In January 1644 a Parliament was assembled by Charles 
in Christ Church. 00 In the Spring of that year the general 

Parliament had five Armies in the field. Essex and Waller 
advanced to blockade Oxford. The Queen was removed thence 

to Exeter, for safety ; but Charles remained shut up in Oxford. 
Its walls were surrounded by lines of defence ;( b ) but the 
blockading forces became so strong that resistance appeared 
to be hopeless. On the night of the 3rd of June the King 
secretly left the City, and passed safely between the two hostile 
Armies, and proceeded to Worcester. For an admirable 
narrative of this, the Reader is referred to the Reverend Vaughan 
Thomas's " Account of the Night March of King Charles," 
published in 1850. The King however, suddenly returned to 
Oxford, and then defeated Waller at Cropredy Bridge, near 
Banburv. And, after the second Battle at Newbury on the 
27th of October, the King withdrew to Oxford. He thence 
went to Northamptonshire. In April 1645, Colonel Windebank 
surrendered Bletchingdon House to the Rebels, and for this he 
was tried by Court Martial, and shot within the precincts of 
Oxford Castle. On the 5th of June 1645 Fairfax received 
commands to raise the siege of Oxford, and to go to the midland 
Counties after the King. On the 14th of June was fought 
the disastrous Battle of Naseby, and the King fled from it to 
Leicester. Charles had fought His last Battle at Naseby. He 
moved from place to place till at Newark the King parted for 
ever from Prince Rupert, after a stormy meeting, and set out 
for Oxford, with four or five hundred Cavaliers, reaching that 
City, after a wearisome march, on the 6th of November, and 
remained there till the 27th of April following (1646), when, 
at three in the morning, the King, — accompanied by His Chaplain, 
Dr. Michael Hudson, and a Groom of His bedchamber, 
Ashburnham, — passed, on horseback, over Magdalen Bridge. 
Ashburnham had previously cut off the King's lock, and some 
part of His beard; (the lovelock, the well known badge of the 



(a) The House of Lords sat in the Rooms now occupied by the Reverend T. J. Prout, 
a Senior Student, and the Commons in the Hall ; and the door communicating between 
the two Assemblies still remains, though the Wall is bricked up. 

(b) It may not be generally known that "the Parks" in Oxford were so called because 
parks of artillery were planted on the elevated margin of the Field, now generously 
converted by the University into a public Park and Arboretum. 

Cavalier 



3° 

Cavalier). One of Hudson's recommendations as a Convoy 
was his intimate knowledge of the cross Roads of the circumjacent 
Counties. The Governor of Oxford was privy to the escape, 
and himself unlocked the east gate of the City ; and, after the 
King had passed through, the Governor ordered that no Gate 
of Oxford should be opened for five days. The King slept that 
night at Saint Albans. On the perilous journey Hudson was 
the Master, and the King and Ashburnham his Servants. 
The King had a Valise behind him on His horse. 

In May of this year (1646), the General of the Parliamentary 
Army was quartered at Headington, and his Cavalry was so disposed 
on Headington Hill as to prevent the King's Troops sallying forth 
from Oxford ; whilst the Parliamentary Foot Soldiers were thus 
distributed ; the General's, and Colonel Pickering's Regiments 
at Headington ; the Major General's and Colonel Harley's at 
Marston ; and the Train of Artillery at Elsfield. 

On the 22nd of June Oxford was surrendered to Fairfax, 
who had ineffectually besieged the City the year before. The 
conditions of surrender were extremely favorable to the Oxonians ; 
not a single privilege either of the University or City being 
compromised. On Wednesday the 24-th of June (1646), the 
capitulation of Oxford was completed. The march out from the 
Town began at 12 o'clock. It was a very rainy day. A Guard 
of Foot was appointed for the departing Soldiers and others to 
march through, which extended from a point in Saint Clement's, 
near Magdalen Bridge, to Shotover Hill. Two thousand and 
upwards, besides Officers, marched out in a Body, well armed, 
with Colours flying, and drums beating. A considerable number 
of Persons also, who were going to Gloucestershire and Yorkshire, 
and had convoys for that purpose, — marched out the same day by 
the North Gate. About five hundred Stragglers, being private 
Persons who were engaged in the Siege, — left Oxford the next 
day. Prince Rupert and his Staff left on the following Monday. 
About 900 of those who marched out on the Wednesday, laid 
down their Arms when they got to Thame, and received passes 
to go to their several homes. 

The next, and last time the King was in Oxfordshire, was in 
1647, when He was lodged, — more as a Prisoner than a Guest, — 
at the Earl of Craven's, at Caversham ; where Charles was 
allowed the last interviews with His Children, the Dukes of 
York and Gloucester, and the Princess Elizabeth. They resided 



it Caversham under the cue of the Duke of Northumberland ; 
and Charles was conducted from Windsor to Caversham House 
to pay this affecting visit. There is still an Avenue there called 
the King's Walk, in memory of Charles. This was not the first 

time that Caversham House had been used as a Prison; for when, 
in January 1622, the Earl and Countess of Somerset were released 
from the Tower, they were commanded " to repair either to 
Greys Court, or to Caversham, the Lord Wallingford's Houses, 
in the County of Oxford, and remain confined in one or other of 
the said Houses, and within three miles compass of the same, 
until further Order be given by His Majesty." 

Whilst at Caversham, the King rode on horseback to a 
retired spot at Collins End, in Whitchurch Parish, (now part 
of Mr. Powys Lybbe's Estate), and there, at a Cottage, or 
small Inn, (near to Mr. Lybbe's Shooting Box, called Holly 
Copse), the King played at Bowls. The late Lord Augustus 
Eitzclarence, Vicar of Mapledurham, presented the Inn with a 
Sign of the King, with the following lines, (composed by the 
late Mr. Jesse of Windsor), painted below the Sign. 

Stop Traveller, stop, in yonder peaceful glade, 

His favorite game the Royal Martyr play'd. 

Here, stripped of Honours, Children, Fortune, Rank, 

Drank from the Bowl, and bowl'd for what He drank ; 

Sought in a cheerful glass His cares to drown, 

And changed His guinea ere He lost His Crown. 

In the great Rebellion the Palace at Woodstock was besieged, 
and much damaged. This ancient Abode of Kino;s was defended 
for his Royal Master by Captain Samuel Fawcet, with much 
skill and courage. Many of the Besiegers fell during the conflict; 
and the arrival of Commissioners from the King, empowered to 
treat concerning a surrender, alone prevented this intrepid Officer 
from burying himself beneath the ruins of the place, which was no 
longer to be defended with any hope of success. The Parliament- 
arians treated this venerable Palace with studied contumely. In 
1649 Commissioners assembled here, by order of the Rump 
Parliament, for the purpose of surveying the Royal property. 
These Fanatics made the King's bed Chamber their Kitchen ; 
the Council Hall they constituted a brewhouse ; and in the 
Dining Room they placed, for the use of their fires, logs sawn 
from a noble tree which had long flourished in the Park under 

the 



32 

the name of the King's Oak. But their triumph was soon 
interrupted by a combination of strange circumstances which 
filled that credulous age with wonder, and afforded an apt 
subject of laughter to the era which succeeded. Frightful noises 
assailed their ears in the night ; dreadful phantasms glided before 
their eyes. Nor were their sight and hearing alone rendered 
subject to terrific visitations. Many round blows were given ; 
their bed-clothes were torn in fragments ; and sundry noxious 
ingredients were discharged on their amazed foreheads. The 
Populace dignified the nocturnal Operator with the name of 
the Just Devil of Woodstock. It afterwards transpired that the 
whole was contrived by the ingenuity of an adroit and humorous 
Royalist, named Joe Collins, who had procured the situation of 
Secretary to the Commissioners for the purpose of imposing on 
their credulity. When the jest was discovered, Collins was 
styled the Merry Devil of Woodstock. 

The Furniture and Pictures were afterwards sold, (many of the 
latter being still preserved in the County) ; and the Building was 
portioned out by Cromwell, or his Agents, to three Persons. 
Two of them, about 1652, pulled down their portions for the 
sake of the stone. The third suffered his part to remain, which 
consisted of the Gatehouse before mentioned, and some adjoining 
ruinous Buildings. After the Rebellion, Lord Lovelace turned 
this Gatehouse into a Dwelling, and lived in it for many years. 
He was Captain of the Band of Pensioners to William the Third. 
Some venerable remains of the old Palace were to be seen till 
after the building of Blenheim, when every trace of the ancient 
Edifice was removed, and two Sycamore trees were planted to 
mark its site. One only of these Trees now remains. The 
following lines elegantly depict the Scene. 

"Where yon spread Trees wave o'er the crystal stream, 
And shew inverted by the solar beam; 
There where the margin's daisy-mantled side 
Shelves down to kiss the congregated tide, 
An ancient Palace stood, — the loved retreat 
Of Britain's Monarchs from the toils of State; 
Where dropt the weight of diademic power, 
The King, in private, spent the tranquil hour; 
New schemes contriv'd, or ponder'd on the past, 
Nor felt time slowly lag, nor fly too fast." 

The 



33 

The Compiler may be forgiven for here diverging into the 
following narratives o( John Hampden's last days and death, as 
an Appendix to the Notice of Charles the First. 

" Immediately previous to the Battle in Chalgrove Field, the 
Head Quarters of a Detachment of the Parliamentary Army 
were (as I have always understood) at an Inn kept by Robert 
Parslow,/ at Watlington, about three miles east of the Scene 
ot Action ; and that at this Inn, or at the Manor House of 
the neighbouring Village of Pyrton, (now the Seat of Hugh 
Hamerslev Esquire), Hampden passed the night previous to the 
Ens;ai2;ement, which took place on Sunday morning, about eight 
o'clock. I have been informed, from authority I cannot doubt, 
that when Hampden was undressed to have his wounds examined, 
a Locket was found in his bosom, containing a slip of paper with 
the following couplet : 

Against my King I do not fight, 

But for my King and Kingdom's right.( b ) 

The house at Pyrton above mentioned, was the paternal 
residence of Mrs. Hampden. The following is a correct copy of 
their Marriage Registry: — "1619. John Hampden of Hampden 
Esqr. and Mrs. Elizabeth Symeon, daughter of Mr. Edmund 
Symeon, of Pyrton, was married the 24th of June, in the 17th 
year of King James." A bust over the common parlour door, 
supposed to have been intended for Hampden, has lately (1827) 
been demolished. In raising a ladder for the purpose of ridding 
it of dust, it was accidentally lifted off the pedestal and dashed 
to pieces by the fall." — Anonymous. ■ 

Also " A true and faithful narrative of the death of Master 
Hampden, who was mortally wounded at Chalgrove Fight, 
Ann. Dom. 1643 and on the 18th day of June." 

" Prince Rupert, persuaded thereunto by one Urrie, a Scottish 
man and malignant Renegado, having, under the covertt of darkness, 
fallen upon our defenceless quarters at Wickenham, (Wycombe), 
and cowardliwise put to the sworde 57 of our men and three Officers, 
carrying off with them one greate gunn, a quantitie of munition, 



(a) Pardtnvs Charity is an eleemosynary endowment at Watlington, of much benefit 
to the poor of that parish. The tradition is that Mr. Parslow endowed this Charity 
with the money he found in a military chest dug up in his Garden, which had been 
secreted there by the Parliamentary Officers on the-eve of the Battle of Chalgrove Field. 

(b) This Locket is in the Bodleian Library. 

and 



34 

"and other booty, with some prisners, was retiring towards Oxford, 
when the alarum came to the Earl of Essex, who dispatched some 
Horse with all spede to skirmish with and hinder the enemie, while 
himself with the Foot would cut off their returne. Master Hampden 
voluntiered his service with the Horse, albeit he had a Colonelcie 
in a Regiment of Foot ; he courageously advanced, and when the 
enemie bye this rough charge were on the point of being thrown 
into confusion, he received two carrbine shott in his arme, which 
brake the bone j yet, being thus wounded, he would not presentlie 
leave the fields, seeming regardlesse of the paine and greate letting 
of bloode, manfullie saying, c he would not onlie lose his arme, 
but lay downe his life in that good cause he was engaged in.' 
He was conducted to the house of Master Ezekiel Browne (a 
well affected and Godlye man, who afterwards did good service 
in our Armie). He, contrarie to all opinion ofskilfull Chirurgeons, 
appeared to have no hopes of a recoverie, from that hurt, and 
would, so long so his strength sufficed, write directions for the 
vigorous prosecution of the warfare, which were bye speciall 
Messengers forwarded to the Parliament, and these his Letters, 
in the sober judgement of men, have, under God His Providence, 
rescued these Realms from the hands of wicked men, who, 
Ahitophel-like, gave to a weake and credulous King that advice 
which has embroiled these Kingdoms in the present lamentable 
war. Being well nigh spent, and labouring for breath, he uttered 
this praier, which I being present did presentlie commit to writing 
as well as my recollection served me. 

c O Lord God of Hosts, great is thy mercie, just and holie 
are thy dealings unto us sinful men. Save me, O Lord, if it 
be thy good will, from the jaws of death ; Pardon my manifold 
transgressions; receive me to mercie. O Lord, save my bleeding 
countrie ; have these Realms in thine especial keeping ; confound 
and level in the dust those who would rob the people of their 
libertie and lawful prerogative ; let the King see His error ; 
and turne the hearts of His evil counsillours from the malice 
and wickednesse of their designes. Lord Jesus, receive mysoule. 
Amen.' 

After these his devout breathinges he mournfullie uttered, 

c O Lord, save my countrie ! O Lord, be merciful to' 

(here his breath failed, and he fell back on the bedde, and to 
the greate griefe of all good men, gave up the ghoste, after 
having with more than human fortitude indured most cruel 

anguish 



35 

"anguish for the space of fifteen dayes). About seven houres 
before his death, he received theholie Sacrament, after the manner 
set forth by law ; saying, that though he could not awaye with 
the gouvernance of the Church by Bishops, and utterlie did 
abominate the scandalous lives of some clergiemen, yet did he 
thinke its doctrine in the greater parte primitive, and conformeable 
to God His Worde, as in Holie Scriptures revealed. The 
whole armie at his buriall followed, singing the 90th Psalme ; and 
at their returne, the 43rd, with ensigns furled and muffled drums, 
their heads uncovered. Never were hearde such piteous cryes 
at the deathe of one man, as at Master Hampden's ; trulie he 
was a wise and good man, who was bye all looked up to as the 
deliverer of his countrie from Kinglie Tyrannie and arbitrarie 
power. He had in all his actions a view not unto his own 
particular good, but that of the common weal ; of integritie 
uncorrupted, of a good courage and a most winning demeanour. 
In his younge dayes he had entered too larglie into the vaine 
pastimes of the world, but was reclaimed, as I have heard him 
confess, by an inward call from the Lord, which enforced him to 
laye aside those his pursuits. For his noble opposing of that unjust 
subsidie ship money, I need say nothing, it being in the dailie 
converse of all men ; but shall conclude this narrative, hopeing the 
Lord, of His marvellous mercie and loving kindness to us, will 
forward the good cause, and bring these our present troubles 
unto a happie and peaceable conclusion. 

By me Edward Clough, in the yeareof our redemption 1643." 



CHARLES THE SECOND. 

In consequence of the Plague raging in London, the Parliament 
of Charles the Second met in the great Hall of Christ Church, 
in Oxford, on the 9th of October 1665. And a gay Court 
surrounded the King there. He remained in Oxford till January 
1666 ; and the Queen (Catherine of Braganza), was detained 
there, by illness, till the 16th of February, being hospitably lodged 
in Merton College. Again, a new Parliament met at Oxford on 
the 2 1 st of March 168 1, at a period of National excitement, and 
the King came to Oxford, accompanied by Queen Catherine, and 
surrounded by His Guards. They travelled from Windsor to 
Oxford with all the pomp befitting Royalty, and were received by 

the 



36 

the High Sheriff on the confines of the County, and, near Oxford, 
by Lord Norreys, the Lord Lieutenant, who convoyed the Pro- 
cession to Oxford, where the Royal Party were received by the 
Vice Chancellor and Heads of Houses, and the City Authorities, 
with great formalities and demonstrations of joy. The Parliament 
lasted only seven days. The King and His Court were at Christ 
Church, and the Queen at Merton College. The Peers made 
Christ Church Hall their House, whilst the Commons sat in the 
Schools. But they not affording sufficient space for the Assembly, 
the Theatre was ordered to be fitted up for the Commons, and 
the King was to be found busy amongst the Workmen in the 
Theatre. On one of the days the King made an excursion to 
Burford, and saw several horse races run. On the 28th of 
March two sedan Chairs were seen moving about Christ Church. 
At the door of the House of Lords the King got out of the first 
chair. His Robes were taken out of the second. But " the 
Garter robes were put instead of the robes of State ; so the Chair 
must go back, with an Officer to bring the right." A Peer who 
saw the manoeuvre was forcibly detained till the robes of State 
arrived. Then the King went into the House of Peers ; the 
Black Rod summoned the Commons ; and these unexpected 
words came from the Royal lips, " My Lords and Gentlemen, — 
That all the World may see to what a point we are come, that 
we are not like to have a good end when the divisions at the 
beginning are such, therefore, my Lord Chancellor, do as I have 
commanded you." My Lord Chancellor dissolved the Parliament. 
Charles governed, during the remainder of his life, without a 
Parliament. 

Lord Macaulay (History of England Vol. I. p. 260), thus 
writes : " A new Parliament was summoned to meet at Oxford, 
in March 168 1. Since the days of the Plantagenets the Houses 
had constantly sate at Westminster, except when the Plague 
was raging in the Capital: but, so extraordinary a conjuncture 
seemed to require extraordinary precautions. If the Parliament 
were holden in its usual place of assembling, the House of 
Commons might declare itself permanent, and might call for 
aid on the Magistrates and Citizens of London. The Trainbands 
might rise to defend Shaftesbury, as they had risen, forty years 
before, to defend Pym and Hampden. The Guards might be 
overpowered, the Palace forced, the King a Prisoner in the 
hands of His mutinous Subjects. At Oxford there was no such 

danger 



-,7 

"danger. The University was devoted to the Crown ; and the 

Gentry of the Neighbourhood were generally Tories. Here the 
Opposition had more reason than the King to apprehend violence. " 
The King's design in thus hastily dissolving the Parliament 
was to prevent the passing of the Bill for excluding His Brother 
James, Duke of York (afterwards James the Second), from 
succeeding to the Throne. This "Exclusion Bill" had agitated 
the Parliament and the Country for more than two years; and 
with it came in the Party Nicknames of JVhig and Tory which 
will live for ever in English History. The anti-Exclusionists 
were first called Yorkists. Then Tantivy became a bye-word 
ao-ainst them. The Duke of York and the Irish were for the 

o 

most part in agreement, and consequently the Duke's supporters 
were first called Bogtr otters ; and then the name Tory arose, which 
signified certain Savages amongst the wild Irish. Then followed 
the opposite factious name of JVJiig. And this name, according 
to Burnet (in his 'History of his own Time'), originated thus: 
"The south-west Counties of Scotland have seldom corn enough 
to serve them round the year; and the northern parts producing 
more than they need, those in the west came in the Summer to 
buy at Leith the stores that come from the north ; and, from a 
word whiggam, used in driving their horses, all that drove were 
called Whiggamors, and, shorter, the Whiggs. Now, in that year, 
(1648), after the news came down of the Duke of Hamilton's 
defeat, the Ministers animated their people to rise and march to 
Edinburgh; and they came up marching at the head of their 
Parishes, w 7 ith an unheard of fury, praying and preaching all the 
way as they came. The Marquis of Argyll and his Party came 
and headed them, they being about 6,000. This was called the 
Whiggamors' inroad; and ever after that all that opposed the 
Court came, in contempt, to be called Whigs ; and from 
Scotland the word was brought into England." It was in 1679 
that the name was revived as a designation for the Opponents of 
the Court in England. The Names Whig and Tory have not 
always been associated with uniform sets of political principles. 
Down to the Revolution of 1688 the object of the Whigs was to 
make a reform or change in the ancient Constitution of the 
Country ; and, till recently, their object has been to maintain the 
principles of the change then made. But they have from time to 
time shifted and modified their principles within certain limits, in 
conformity with the continual variations of circumstances; and 

there 



38 

there have always been shades of opinion among the Persons 
constituting the same Party. These differences have been some- 
times less, sometimes more distinctive; at one time referring to 
matters of apparently mere temporary policy, as was thought to 
be the case when the Whigs of the last age, soon after the 

to o ' 

breaking out of the French Revolution, split into two sections, 
which came to be known as the Old and New Whigs ; at another, 
seeming to involve so fundamental a discordance of ultimate views 
and objects, if not of first principles, as to cause divisions of the 
Party to become Radicals. 

On the other hand, the Tories (who were first of all " The 
Exclusioners," supporting Charles the Second in the attempt of 
Parliament to change the Royal succession with a view to the 
Duke of Monmouth succeeding to the Throne), may be 
characterised, in the words of Dr. Johnson, as those who "adhere 
to the ancient Constitution of the State, and the apostolical 
Hierarchy of the Church of England." In other words, the 
maintenance of things as they have been, or, when some great 
change has taken place against the will of their Party, — things as 
they are, — has from the beginning been the prime characteristic 
of Toryism. All Parties in politics however, are liable to be 
forced to shift their ground ; for, as Burke expresses it, they must 
occasionally vary their means to secure the unity of their end. 
Accordingly, in point of fact, much of what was once Whiggism 
has long become Toryism or Conservatism ; the changes in the 
Constitution which were sought for being now attained : and, on 
the other hand, as new objects have presented themselves to it, 
Whiggism has, in so far as it retains its proper character, put on 
new aspects, and taken to itself new names. 



Some Readers may not be acquainted with the following 
Riddle, composed by Charles the Second. 

What's that in the fire, and not in the flame ? 
What's that in the Master, and not in the Dame ? 
What's that in the Courtier, and not in the Clown ? 
What's that in the Country, and not in the Town ? 

R. 



JAMES 



39 

JAMES THE SECOND. 

During the turbulent times in which James exerted himself 
to subvert the Established Religion, the University of Oxford 
played no insignificant part. The Royal purpose had so far 
succeeded that Christ Church was governed by a Roman Catholic 
Dean, who instituted daily Mass there ; and University College 
was converted into Roman Catholicism where Mass was also 
daily performed under the superintendence of the Master, Dr. 
Obadiah Walker. But so unpopular was this, that it was 
necessary to quarter a Troop of Dragoons in Oxford to allow 
" Ave Maria" to be sung without interruption from the 
scurrilous songs of the street. The crisis was at hand. The 
Presidency of Magdalen College was vacant. On the 15th 
of April 1687, the Fellows of that College elected Dr. John 
Hough, according to the Statutes of their Founder, to the vacant 
office of President. Upon their informing the King of their 
choice, they were cited to appear before the High Commission 
at Whitehall, which pronounced Hough's election void, and a 
Royal Mandate was despatched to the College recommending 
Parker, Bishop of Oxford, as the President. The Fellows 
respectfully represented to the King the difficulty in which they 
were placed, and, pleading the oaths which they had taken to 
observe the Statutes of their College, excused themselves, with 
many expressions of loyalty, from complying with the Royal 
Mandate. Indignant at this mutinous resistance of His power, 
and confident that His personal command would not be disobeyed, 
James decided upon proceeding to Oxford. He was met at 
the bounds of the County by the Earl of Abingdon, the High 
Sheriff, and Gentlemen of the County. ( a ) Having made a 
preliminary round of visits, on the 3rd of September 1687 He 
dined in great state at the ancient Palace at Woodstock. On 
the same evening "He arrived in Oxford, and was received with 
all the honours usually accorded to Royalty, being welcomed 
by an avenue of Undergraduates from the entrance of the City 
to the Gates of Christ Church. He resided at the Deanery, 
where a Chapel was specially fitted up for the celebration of 
Mass. No delay was lost in summoning the Fellows of Magdalen 
into the royal presence, but they firmly maintained, in spite 

(a) Aubrev's Letters Vol. I, p. 31. 

Of 



4° 

of the King's tyrannical insolence, that they were bound to obey 
their Statutes and Oaths, and to support the Election of Dr. 
Hough ; and James left Oxford in anger. 

To continue to narrate how, subsequently, the Royal 
Commissioners sat in Oxford, protected by military forces, and 
pronounced Parker's election valid, — how he was privately 
installed President by proxy, — how the college Butler was 
dismissed for refusing to scratch Dr. Hough's name off the 
Buttery Book, — how the Scholars refused to c cap' the Rulers 
of the College, — and how it was not possible to find a Blacksmith 
in the whole of Oxford who would force the lock of the President's 
Lodgings (the Keys of which Dr. Hough refused to give up), — 
is not within the compass of our little work, and has been 
eloquently described by more than one of our greatest writers. 
Suffice it to say that the Fellows were one and all ejected 
from their College, and declared incapable of holding any 
Ecclesiastical appointment. The immediate object of the King 
was accomplished. Magdalen College soon became, for a time, 
a College of Papists, with a Roman Catholic Bishop at its head ; 
but Parker died in a few months from anxiety and mortification. 

The memorable resistance of Magdalen College to the command 
of James the Second, and His ejectment of the Fellows, are 
immortalised as part of our National history by a Fresco in one 
of the Lobbies of the Palace at Westminster. 



Being by its Statutes obliged to entertain the Kings of England 
and their eldest Sons, when they visit the University, Magdalen 
College has not unfrequently been honored with Roval visits. 



WILLIAM THE THIRD. 

This King (whilst Prince of Orange) landed at Torbay on 
the 5th of November 1688, and in passing through Berkshire 
(by way of Abingdon and Wallingford), and Oxfordshire 
to London, took up his abode at Sir William Bulstrode's, Phillis 
Court, Henley on Thames, and there held his Court. From 
thence he issued an Order (dating it from Our Court at Henley), 
directing all Colonels and Commanders by beat of drum to call 

together 



4' 

together the several Officers and Soldiers in sueh places as they 
should think most convenient for rendezvous, and there to keep 
them in good order and discipline. 

Upon the Prince's arrival in England the Warden of All Souls 
(Dr. Finch, Son of the Earl of Winchelsea), was deputed to 
wait upon the Prince at Crookhorn and invite him to Oxford, 
and assure him that the Plate of certain Colleges would be at 
his service, if needed : but it does not appear that the Prince 
availed himself of the invitation. 

Upon King William's return from His brilliant Victory at 
Namur, He dissolved the Parliament, (10 Oct. 1695), and then 
proceeded on a tour of visits during the time of the general 
Election. In the course of this peregrination, the King left the 
dinner table of the Duke of Shrewsbury( a ) at his Mansion at 
Heythrop in Oxfordshire, to proceed to Burford. There He was 
met by the whole population, who entreated him to accept some 
token of their love. Burford was then renowned for its Saddles, 
and we are told that one Inhabitant had the reputation of being 
the best Saddler in Europe. Two of his masterpieces were offered 
to the King, who accepted them with much grace, and ordered 
them to be especially reserved for His own use. From 
Burford the King came to Oxford ; where, — to borrow from 
the characteristic eloquence of Lord Macaulay, — "William was 
received with great pomp, complimented in a Latin Oration, 
presented with the most beautiful productions of the Academic 
press, entertained with music, and invited to a sumptuous Feast 
in the Sheldonian Theatre. He departed in a few hours, 
pleading as an excuse for the shortness of His visit that He 
had seen the Colleges before and that this was a visit, not of 
curiosity, but of kindness. As it being well known that He did 
not love the Oxonians, and was not loved by them, His haste 
gave occasion for some idle rumours which found credit among 
the Vulgar. It was said that He hurried away without tasting 
the costly Banquet which had been provided for Him, because 
He had been warned by an anonymous letter that, if He ate 
or drank in the Theatre, He was a dead Man." 



(a) He was the 12th Earl, and only Duke of Shrewsbury. 



QUEEN 



4 2 

QUEEN ANNE. 

On the 15th December 1688, (shortly after the restoration 
of the Fellows of Magdalen College who had been ejected by 
her Father, James the Second), the Princess Anne (afterwards 
Queen), came to Oxford, and "was received by the University 
and Town with all imaginable joy, honour, and triumph. Sir 
John Lainer's Regiment of Horse, here quartered, went out 
to meet her. The Earl of Northampton came in at the head 
of a great party of horse, both of Gentlemen and Militia Men, 
of two or three Counties ; but, immediately before the Coach 
of her Highness, the Bishop of London (Dr. Henry Compton), 
in a Military Habit, blue Cloak, and pistols before him, his 
naked sword in his hand, — his colours purple, and the motto 
embroidered in letters of gold, Nolumus leges Anglice mutari, — 
rode at the head of a troop of Noblemen and Gentlemen. The 
whole Cavalcade consisted of about eleven or twelve hundred 
horse. At Christ Church, the Princess was received by the 
Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, and Doctors in their scarlet, the 
Vice Chancellor complimenting her in an English speech. "( a ) 

In the first year of Her Reign (1702), Queen Anne came to 
Oxford, accompanied by Her Husband George, Prince of Denmark, 
and attended by Sir Philip Harcourt. They lodged in the 
Deanery at Christ Church, and were one day entertained by the 
University at a Banquet in the Theatre, at which also were 
present John, Duke, and Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. In 
1704, the Queen, to testify Her sentiments of gratitude to the 
Duke, and affection for the Duchess of Marlborough, conveyed 
(with the sanction of Parliament), to his Grace and his heirs the 
Royal Manor and Honor of Woodstock, with the Hundred of 
Wootton, and afterwards ordered the present grand Palace( b ) to be 
built, at the Royal expense, in memory of the Battle and Victory 
of Blenheim. The Act of Parliament granting the Estate 
contained a recapitulation of the unparalleled services performed 
by Marlborough not only to his own Sovereign and fellow 



(a) Aubrey's Letters Vol. i p. 51. 
(b) Not the Vale 

Of Tcmpe, fam'd in song, nor Ida's grove, 
Such beauty boasts. 

Lord Lyttletons Blenheim, 

Subjects 



43 

Subjects, but to all Europe. After the Queen's death however, 
in 1714, the Duke was left to pay a large sum in liquidation of 
the balance due tor the building ot" the Palace. 

To John, Duke of Marlborough had been committed, by 
universal consent, in succession to William the Third, the 
direction and management of the Continental Wars. And, 
on the Battle Field at Blenheim, — in spite of the political 
conflict of the rival factions at home, — his consummate skill, 
sound judgment, and noble daring, enabled him to address the 
following lines to his Duchess, written in pencil, on horseback, 
with a drum for a desk; and which identical pencil manuscript 
is still preserved, at Blenheim Palace. "13 August 1704. 
* * " * I have not time to say more, but 

to beg you will give my duty to the Queen, and let Her know 
Her Army has had a glorious victory." At a crisis during the 
Battle of Ramilies, in May 1706, Marlborough, seeing the danger 
his Army was in, placed himself at the head of seventeen 
Squadrons, and dashed at the French Cavalry. Marlborough 
was observed, surrounded, and well nigh taken Prisoner ; and, 
forcing his way, his horse fell, and, whilst his Grace was in the 
act of mounting another Charger, his Equerry, then holding the 
bridle, had his head shot off by a cannon ball. An irresistible 
and determined attack won the day ; and Louis was compelled 
to sue for a temporary peace. 

THE GEORGIAN ERA. 

George the First honored the Earl of Cadogan with a visit 
at Caversham House. The Earl had taken down the former 
Mansion, and erected a new one on a site farther removed from 
the River Thames ; and, in the new House, the Earl had built 
a Room, lined with cedar, specially for the reception of His 
Majesty. 

This Reign being the next in succession to the last Sovereign 
of the House of Stuart, the Country was far from unanimous 
in welcoming, or paying hearty allegiance to the new Dynasty ; 
and the following are the Names (recorded here not as any stigma, 
but merely as a matter of history), of Oxfordshire Land Owners 
who were Nonjurors ; refusing to take the Oaths to King 
George. 

NON 



44 
NON-JURORS. 

Frances Smith : — Estate at Newnham-Murren, in possession 
of Anne Creswell. 

Maurice Belson : — Estate at Aston-Rowant, in possession of 
Peter Seamore. 

Michael Blount, of Maple-Durham. 

Thomas Philips, of Tetsworth. 

Charles, Lord Dormer, of Swyncombe. 

Elizabeth Winslow : — Estate at Great Haseley, in possession 
of Thomas Reynolds. 

John Ayleworth : — Estate at St. Giles's, in possession of 
George Smith. 

Thomas Stonor, of Stonor, Esquire. 

Matthew Haskey, of Pyrton. 

Edward Wallis : — Estate at Berwick-Prior, in possession of 
the Widow Sanders. 

Sir Edward Simeon : — Estate at Bix, in possession of William 
Crook. 

William Holman : — Estate at Mixbury, in possession of 
Thomas Grantham. 

Charles Trinder, of Broadwell, Esquire. 

Mary Hide : — Estate at Standlake, in possession of Richard 

Tuckeys. 
Hellen Fermor, of Tusmore. 
John Powell : — Estate at Sandford, in possession of Gregory 

Peck. 
Roboaldo Fieschi : — Estate at Chinnor, in possession of John 

Dutton. 
Mary Flatman, and Frances Flatman, spinsters. 
Thomas Parcell : — Estate at Northnewington, in possession 

of Richard Banbury. 
Robert Kilby, of Souldern. 
Mary Baldwin : — Estate at Hooknorton, in possession of 

Thomas Bedford. 

APOLLONIA 



45 

Apollonia Yate : — Estate at Clanfield, in possession of 

Stephens. 

John Day, of Dorchester. 

Edward Day, of ditto. 

Elizabeth Conquest, Margaret Brent, Mary Brent, and 

Frances Brent : — Estate at Banbury, in possession of 

Bayliffe. 

William Davie, of Overy, in the Parish of Dorchester. 

Robert Prince, of Overy, in ditto. 

Thomas Day : — Estate at Warborough, in possession of Moses 
Cox. 

Thomas Kimber, of the Parish of Holywell, Oxford. 

Charles Fortescue : — Estate at Idbury, &c, in possession of 
Robert Guy. 

Sir John Curzon, of Waterperry. 

Alicia Cox : — Estate at Fritwell, in possession of Sir Edward 
Longuevelle. 

Henry Bennett, of Souldern. 

Francis Curzon, of Waterperry. 

John Sharpe, of Sandford. 

James Fermor, of Tusmore. 

Henry Fermor, of ditto. 

Sir Robert Throckmorton, of Bampton, Baronet. 

Anne Clements, of Bradford. 

Sir Charles Brown, of Kiddington, Baronet. 

Dame Frances Brown, of ditto. 

Ralph Sheldon, Esq. : — Estate at Sibford, Steeple-Barton, in 
possession of Edward Mitchell, et al. 

Sir John Webb : — Estate at Shipton, in possession of Hannah 
Whiting. 

Anne Lytcotte : — Estate at Banbury, in possession of 

Bayliffe. 

Charles Greenwood, of Brise-Nortdn, Esquire. 

Margaret 



4 6 

Margaret Fettiplace : — -An Annuity out of Swyncombe. 

Frances Chapman : — Estate at Aston, in possession of Thomas 
Sparrow-Hawk. 

Benedict Hall : — Estate at Berrick-Salome, in possession of 
John Avery. 



In Oxford and Oxfordshire very strong feelings in favour of 
the Stuart Family long prevailed ; and there were great Jacobite 
Riots in Oxford in the year of the Accession of King George. 
The Hanoverian Party (the Whigs), on the other hand, formed 
a " Constitution Club j" and the Grand Jury at an Assizes 
presented the Members of the Club as a set of factious Men 
" who, shrouding themselves under the specious name of the 
Constitution Club, were Enemies to Monarchy and all good 
Government, and had been the Authors of all the tumults and 
discord that had happened in the City or County of Oxford." 
So disloyal was a great Party in the University and City that, 
at length, Dragoons were sent to Oxford, headed by General 
Pepper ; and Martial Law was proclaimed. The Wits of 
Oxford met this affront with the following epigram. 

" King George, observing with judicious eyes 

The state of both His Universities, 

To Oxford sent a Troop of horse ; and why : 

That learned Body wanted Loyalty. 

To Cambridge, Books He sent, as well discerning 

How much that loyal Body wanted Learning." 

This elicited the following Reply from the pen of Sir William 
Browne of Cambridge. 

" The King to Oxford sent a Troop of horse, 
For Tories own no argument but force. 
With equal skill to Cambridge, Books He sent, 
For Whigs admit no force but argument." 

The Books alluded to were 30,000 volumes of Bishop Moore's 
Library which the Crown had purchased, at Lord Townshend's 
suggestion. 

George 



47 

George [*he Firsi does not appear to have further identified 
Himself with the University of Oxford. His inability to write 
or speak our Language interposed to prevent much sympathy with 
English Institutions or customs. ( a ) 

George the Second, like his Father, displayed a great 
preference for Hanover, and we are unable to connect Him 
personally with Oxfordshire or the University, farther than that 
he honored with his confidence and friendship Baron Schutz of 
Shotover House, and several times visited there. The State 
Rooms, adorned with Tapestry, which were prepared for the 
King's reception, — are familiar to all acquainted with the House. 
His Queen (Caroline) however, contributed a large sum, in 
1 733, towards the completion of the new Buildings of Queen's 
College. And Her Statue was placed, where it still is, in the 
Cupola of the front Entrance to the College. 

In 1739, Frederick Prince of Wales (Father of George the 
Third), and his Princess paid a visit to Lord North and Guilford, 
at Wroxton Abbey. And the Obelisk in Wroxton Park was 
erected, at the Prince's command, to commemorate this Royal 
Visit, with the following inscription. 

FREDERICUS 

WALLIiE PRINCEPS 

OFTIMUS MUNIFICENTISSIMUS 

A 

SERVO SUO 

FRANCISCO 

DOMINO NORTH ET GUILFORD 

WROXTONLE HOSPITIO EXCEPTUS 

IN 

AMOENITATIS INCREMENTUM 

ET 

ADVENTUS SUI MEMORIAM 

OBELISCUM HUNC EXTRUI JUSSIT 

MENSE SEPTEMBR MDCCXXXIX. 

With the Accession of George the Third to the Throne 
Jacobitism disappeared from Oxfordshire and Oxford like a 
passing dream. 



(a) In consequence of the King's ignorance of the Language, the customary presence 
of the Sovereign at Meetings of the Cabinet Council was dispensed with. And the 
absence of the Crown has since become a rule of State. 

His 



4 8 

His Majesty was, at different periods of His life, a frequent 
Visitor at Nuneham Park, being much attached successively to 
George Simon, Earl Harcourt, and to his Brother William, Earl 
Harcourt, each of whom was Master of the Horse to the Queen. 

The King and Queen (with the Princes Ernest Augustus, 
and Adolphus Frederick, the Princess Royal, and the Princesses 
Augusta and Elizabeth), came from Nuneham to Oxford on 
the 17th September 1785. This was the King's first visit to 
Oxford. The Royal Party, accompanied by the Earl and 
Countess Harcourt, entered the City in five Carriages, and, 
driving through Merton Fields to Christ Church, attended 
Morning Prayers at the Cathedral. After inspecting Christ 
Church, they were waited upon at Corpus by the Vice 
Chancellor (Dr. Dennis, President of Saint John's College), 
preceded by the Bedels with their Staves inverted, and were 
afterwards conducted over the principal Buildings of the 
University. The King then repaired to the Council Chamber, 
and conferred the honour of Knighthood upon the Mayor (Sir 
John Treacher), and all the Members of the Corporation kissed 
hands. The Bells rang incessantly from the arrival of the Royal 
Family till their departure, and at night the City was grandly 
illuminated. 

The King and Queen, and three Princesses honored Lord 
Harcourt with a Visit in August 1786, and, on the 18th, came to 
Oxford, and were received at the Gate of the Schools by the Vice 
Chancellor, the Duke of Marlborough, and Heads of Colleges &c. 
and escorted to the Theatre, where an Address was presented. 
Afterwards the City had the honor of presenting an Address at 
the Council Chamber, when the King knighted the senior 
Alderman, Sir Richard Tawney, (the Mayor humbly declining 
the dignity). 

His Majesty and the Queen also honored Blenheim with visits ; 
and they were once entertained, with much state, at Shirburn 
Castle, by George, Earl of Macclesfield, who long held Offices at 
Court. 

Queen Charlotte contributed a large sum, in 1778, towards 
the cost of rebuilding a wing of Queen's College which had been 
destroyed by fire. 

George the Fourth, when Prince Regent, paid Visits to the 
Earl of Guilford at Wroxton Abbey in 1805, 1806, and 1808. 

The 



49 

The Obelisk in Wroxton Park bears the following inscription with 
reference to the first of these visits : 

GBORGIUS 

WALLI/E PRINCEPS 

FREDERICI NEPOS 

\\ I V1RTUTIBUS ORNATUS 

HOSPITIUM 

SIBI 

A FRANeiSCO COMITE DE GUILFORD 

FRANCISCI NEPOTE 

\\ROXTOM£ RENOVATUM 

HUIC OBELISCO 

INSCRIBI VOLUIT 

MENSE JUNII 

MDCCCV. 

On the second occasion of the Prince's visit to Wroxton, in 1806, 
His Royal Highness was accompanied by the, Duke of Clarence, 
afterwards King William the Fourth. And, in 18 10, the Prince 
Regent presented to the University of Oxford certain literary 
Treasures from Herculaneum, given to Him by the King of Sicily. 
In June 18 14 the Prince Regent visited Oxford for some days, 
with the Emperor of Russia and King of Prussia, attended by a 
great many English and Foreign Noblemen, and Ministers of 
State. The Prince Regent lodged at the Deanery at Christ 
Church ; the Emperor of Russia at Merton College ; and the 
King of Prussia at Corpus College. The University entertained 
them royally at a Banquet in the Radcliffe Library ; the Warden 
and Fellows of All Souls' College at a grand Collation in their 
College Library; and the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church at a 
banquet in Christ Church Hall. The Prince Regent, on different 
occasions, but especially at the Banquet in Christ Church Hall, — 
displayed His polite knowledge of Foreign Languages by 
interpreting the Speeches of Prince Blucher, and otherwise. The 
details and Ceremonials of this memorable Royal Visit were 
admirably recorded, and have been handed down to Posterity, 
in a Book published at the time by the University, from the pen 
of Bishop Parsons (Master of Balliol College), who was regarded 
as the best English Writer of his day in Oxford. 

The City of Oxford most creditably bore its share in the 
demonstrations of Loyalty evinced at this Royal Visit, and the 

Prince 



5° 

Prince Regent upon one occasion, in the Council Chamber, 
conferred the honour of knighthood upon the Mayor, Sir Joseph 
Lock, and the Town Clerk, Sir William Elias Taunton. 

William the Fourth does not appear to have paid any Regal 
Visit in the County, or to Oxford. But Queen Adelaide, in 
October 1835, came to Oxford, and remained some days. A 
grand Reception was given to the Queen in the Theatre, and 
She held a Drawing Room and Levees at the Angel Hotel. The 
Queen visited the Bodleian Library and the University Buildings 
generally, (accompanied by the Duke of Wellington, as Chancellor 
of the University) ; and Her Majesty paid especial attention 
to Queen's College, as being peculiarly under the patronage of 
Queens-Consort ever since Queen Philippa's time. 



VICTORIA. 

Her Majesty, whilst Princess, first visited Oxford, (accompanied 
by the Duchess of Kent), in November 1832, and was entertained 
by the Earl of Abingdon at Wytham. Some Macaronic Verses 
(said to be from the pen of the Right Honorable Robert Lowe, 
then a Commoner of University College, and which have gone 
through several subsequent editions), commemorated this Royal 
Visit. They commence with the following Stanza. 

Dicite prcTclarum, Musnc, mihi dicitc Kcntae 
Duchcssam, Princcssquc simul Victoria nostro 
Singatur vcrsu, Conroianusquc triumphus, 
Et quam shoutarunt Undergraduates atquc Magistri, 
Et quantum dedcrit Vicc-Chanccllor ipse refreshment. 

The Royal Party were presented, in the Theatre, with an Address 
from the University, and afterwards feted in University College. 
The Princess, on this occasion, paid Visits to the Duke of 
Marlborough at Blenheim Palace, and to the late Archbishop 
Harcourt at Nuneham Park. 

In June 1841, the Queen, and Albert the Prince Consort 
visited the Archbishop of York at Nuneham, when the Prince 
came to Oxford for a day, and was present in the Theatre at 
the Commemoration, — the Duke of Wellington presiding as 
Chancellor. The Prince Consort, with his Suite, and the 

Chancellor 



5' 

Chancellor were afterwards splendidly entertained at Saint John's 
College, — the Reverend Dr. Wynter, the President, being the 

Vice Chancellor. In the Evening the Queen held a Levee at 
Nuneham, which was attended by the Vice Chancellor and the 
Heads of Houses. On the following day the Prince Consort 
visited the Duke of "Marlborough, at Blenheim Palace. 

In December i860, the Queen came (but not in State), to 
Oxford, accompanied by the Prince Consort, to see the Prince of 
Wales, then in residence at Frewen Hall. 

Her Majesty has ever shown a tender care for the University, 
and manifested a constant interest in its prosperity and welfare. 

Also, the Prince Consort visited Oxford in June 1856, 
and again in January 1857 (at the latter date in company 
with his three eldest Children). On the former occasion, the 
Prince Consort was present at the granting of Degrees in the 
Theatre, under the auspices of the Earl of Derby, the Chancellor. 
The Prince of Baden, and the Prince of Prussia were amongst 
those who received Degrees. 

His Royal Highness the Prince Consort, to the unmitigated 
sorrow of all, died, at Windsor Castle, on the 14th of December 
1861. His services to the Land of his adoption, and the interest 
which he took in every good and humanising project, made him 
the centre of our social system, and earned for him the enduring 
title of Albert the Good. He was also a Counsellor of the 
rarest value to Her Majesty, in all emergencies. 

" God bless Thee, weeping Queen, 

With Blessing more divine ; 
And fill with better Love than Earth's, 

That tender heart of Thine ; 
That, when the Thrones of Earth shall be, 

As low as graves brought down, 
A pierced hand may give to Thee 
The Crown which Angels shout to see : — 

Thou wilt not weep 

To wear that Heavenly Crown." 

Albert Edward, Prince of Wales was admitted an 
Undergraduate Member of Christ Church, Oxford, on the 18th 
of October 1859. ^ e occupied Frewen Hall, a private Mansion 
in the City, and resided there, with a Retinue, for upwards of a 
year ; diligently pursuing his Studies, attending, with marked 
regularity, College Chapel at the Cathedral, and otherwise 

observing 



52 

observing the discipline of the University, in an exemplary 
manner. So strict was the Prince in maintaining Academical 
order in his own Person, that he uniformly refused the invitations 
of the Nobility, with the exception of successive gatherings at 
Blenheim, where, each time, he was magnificently entertained ; — 
occasional mornino- visits to the Earl and Countess of Macclesfield 
at Shirburn Castle ; and honoring the Bishop of Oxford at dinner 
parties at Cuddesdon Palace ; besides being the frequent and 
friendly Guest of Dean and Mrs. Liddell at Christ Church. 
" During the five or six Terms of his Residence, the young 
Prince gained golden opinions by his easy, unaffected bearing, 
and took with him, at his departure, the loyal good wishes of all 
Oxford, University and City." G. V. Cox's Recollections of 
Oxford, p. 426. 

The Crown Prince of Denmark (Brother of the Princess 
of Wales), was entered a Member of Christ Church, on the 20th 
of October 1863, and he came to reside in Oxford, under the 
Reverend George William Kitchin, as his Royal Highness* 
Tutor ; but the unexpected death of the King of Denmark, upon 
which event the young Prince's Father succeeded to the Throne, 
precipitated His Royal Highness' return to his native Country. 
The complications following upon this Accession, — resulting very 
shortly in a War with Prussia, — effectually prevented the Crown 
Prince returning to Oxford. 

To commemorate the association of the two Princes with 
Christ Church, the Venerable Archdeacon Clerke, Sub-Dean, 
has placed, in one of the noble windows of the Hall, their several 
Armorial bearings, in stained glass, (executed by Powell) ; those 
of the Prince of Wales representing severally his Arms in respect 
of the Principality ; as Duke of Saxony ; Prince of Coburg 
Gotha ; Duke of Cornwall ; Earl of Chester, Carrick, and 
Dublin, Baron of Renfrew, and Lord of the Isles. 



VIVAT REGINA ! 



The 



53 

The Compiler is sensible that, in the foregoing pages, he has 
been betrayed into details of the casual connexion only, of certain 
Sovereigns and Princes with Oxfordshire, not justified by the 
heading of the Paper ; which he desires to conclude with the 
remark that down to the time of Windsor Castle being rebuilt 
by Edward the Third, the County of Oxford was eminently the 
Royal Comity ; — a title in which Berkshire has, since that date, 
justlv prided itself. 



JUDGES 



JUDGES OF THE LAND. 



55 



JUDGES OF THE LAND, 

WHOSE COUNTY WAS OXFORDSHIRE, EITHER NATIVE 
OR ADOPTED. 



To publish a complete list of the Celebrities of Oxfordshire 
is not our purpose, and would be a difficult, and perhaps 
invidious task. The subjoined Names therefore, have been 
confined to such Oxfordshire Persons as have attained Judicial 
Eminence in the Kingdom ; and the preparation of the List 
has been as much facilitated by the learned biographical Works 
of Lord Campbell, and Mr. Foss, as the pleasant labour has 
been diminished by the feeling that the Roll is an honor to 
the County. 

If any Reader should, premise that by limiting the List to 
those who have been raised to the Judicial Bench, Oxfordshire 
is not rich in Names otherwise celebrated, that assumption would 
be dispelled upon mentioning, as Natives of the County, 
Lydiat,( 3 ) the Mathematician and Astronomer, Heylin, the 
Divine and Cosmographical Writer, Sir Thomas Pope, the 
Founder of Trinity College, Anthony Wood, the Biographer 
and Antiquarian, Sir George Etherege, the Comic Writer, 
Philips, the Poet, Sir William Davenant,^) the Dramatic 
Writer, Edward Pocock,( c ) the Divine and Oriental Scholar, 
Bishop Cooper, the learned Divine, and Dr. George 
Etheridge, the Mathematician and Greek Professor, among 



(a) "If dreams get flattered, once again attend, 
Hear Lydiat's life, and Galileo's end." 

Johnsons Vanity of Human Wishes. 

(b) His Father kept the Crown Inn, in Corn Market Street, Oxford, where 
Shakspeare used to stop on his journeys from Stratford on Avon to London, and 
Sir William Davenant was Shakspeare's Godchild. 

(c) "Cujus si nomen audias, nihil hie dc fama desideres," is the commencement 
of the Inscription on his Monument in Christ Church Cathedral, where he was buried. 

others 



56 

others who have been rewarded with the honors of fame, — for 
whose absence from this record the incompetency of the Author 
must alone account. 

It may be further remarked that such Judges of the Land 
as may be claimed by Oxfordshire proper, have alone been 
included in the List, whereas had the enumeration extended 
to those who were temporarily resident within .the County 
territorially, during their education at the University, the List 
would have been adorned with such Luminaries of the Law 
as, (amongst others), Sir Thomas More, Selden, Sir Matthew 
Hale, Mansfield, Blackstone, Stowell, Eldon, Tenterden, 
Westbury, and Coleridge. To which List may be added 
Leland's review of some of the learned Men of the University 
in his time (Henry the VHIth's Reign). 

Lumina doctrinae, Grocinus deinde secutus, 

Sellingus, Linacer, Latimarusque pius. 
Dunstallus, Phcenix, Stocleus atque Coletus, 

Lilius ct Paceus, festa corona virum. 
Omncs Italiam petierunt sidcre fausto : 

Et nituit Latiis musa Britanna Scholis. 
Omncs inquc suam patriam redicrc discrti, 

Sccum thcsauros et rctulcrc suos. 

a When it is recollected that the Judges of the Land are, by 
the nature of their Office, in some respect the Representatives 
of Majesty, presiding in the Judgment-Seat, and traversing 
the Country in all the pomp and circumstance of their position, 
interpreting the Laws and administering Justice in the presence 
of multitudes ; that the highest Constitutional questions, as 
well as the minutest civil rights, are subject to their decision ; 
that many of them have, from the most humble origin, been 
raised to their high station by their own industry, abilities, 
and character, selected from the elite of a most arduous and 
honorable Profession ; that every judicial act they perform, 
every opinion they offer, and every word they utter, is 
subject to the observation of their Contemporaries, equally 
educated, and many of them equally competent to form a 
judgment; and that their intercourse on the Circuits is not 
confined to their legal Brethren, but extends over the highest 
and most intelligent branches of the Community ; — it seems 
onlv a natural consequence that the rise and progress, the 

conduct 



57 

"conduct and the character, the lineage and descendants of 
those who have pursued such a career, should abound with 
interest to all classes of Society, as well those who are 
partakers in the benefits and are conversant with the history 
of their Country's Institutions, as those who are prosecuting 
the same studies and aspiring to similar honours." Foss' Judges 
of England, Vol* I p. 10 of Introduction. 



REIGN OF WILLIAM THE SECOND. 

1087-1 100. 

Robert Bloet, Lord Chancellor, 1090. 

The precise place of his birth is uncertain. He retired from 
the Chancellorship upon his appointment to the Bishopric of 
Lincoln, being the second Bishop after the removal of the See 
from Dorchester, Oxfordshire. 

REIGN OF HENRY THE FIRST. 

1100-1135. 

The same Robert Bloet is styled during this Reign Justlciarlus 
totius Anglioe, or Chief Justiciary. 

In that Office he would rank next to the King in the Curia 
Regis. He would preside in all Criminal and Civil causes, 
and v/ould have, the principal management of the Royal revenue, — 
and, in the absence of the King, the entire government of the 
State would be entrusted to him as Regent. 

He was seized with a fit of apoplexy when hunting with the 
King at Woodstock, and fell from his horse and died on 10 
January 1123. His body was buried at Lincoln, and his bowels 
were interred at Eynsham, where he had restored the Monastery. 

Herbert Losinga, Chancellor, 1104. 

It may be questionable whether this Chancellor can be justly 
claimed as a Native of the County. The place of his birth is 
given as "inpago Oxunensi" which, by a dubious interpretation, 
has been recorded as at Oxford. 

He was Bishop of Thetford and. Norwich, and he died 22 
July 1 1 19. 

REIGN 



58 
REIGN OF STEPHEN. 

"35-54- 

Alexander, Chancellor, 1135. 

He built the Castle of Banbury, and founded the Abbeys of 
Dorchester and Thame. 

He was Bishop of Lincoln for 24 years. 

REIGN OF HENRY THE SECOND. 

1154-89. 

Alardus Banastre, Justice Itinerant, 1174. 

He was Sheriff of the County of Oxford in 1174 and 1175, 
an Office which his Father held during the four preceding years. 

The functions of the Justices Itinerant, as the designation of 
the Office implies, were to traverse the Country to hear Pleas 
of the Crown and Common Pleas, and to impose the Assizes 
and tallages upon the King's demesnes ; — in distinction to the 
Chief Justiciary, and his subordinate Justiciars, who were appointed 
to sit in the Curia Regis, or Exchequer, at Westminster. 

Thomas Basset, Justice Itinerant, 1168. Justiciar, 1175. 

In recognition of his military services the King granted to him 
the Lordship of Headington, together with the Hundred of 
Bullingdon, and the Hundred lying without the North Gate of 
the City of Oxford. 

Sheriff of the County in 1163, and in 1175 he was appointed 
to act judicially in the Curia Regis. 

The Priory of Bicester was founded by his Son, Gilbert. 

Constantius de Oxford, Justice Itinerant, 1174. 

He was probably a Priest of the City of Oxford, as it was not 
unusual for Ecclesiastical Persons to cast off their family name 
and adopt that of the place where they exercised their religious 
duties. 

Alan de Furnellis, Justiciar, 1179. 
Sheriff of the County, 1184-1186. 

Geoffrey Hose, Justice Itinerant, 1 179. 
Sheriff of the County 11 70-81. 

He 



59 

He was appointed a Justice Itinerant, in conjunction with 
the above mentioned Alardus Banastre, to assess the tallage on 
the County. 

John de Oxford, Chief Justiciary, 1179. 

The Son of a Burgess of the City of Oxford, where he was 
born. Before performing any judicial duties he was successively 
Chaplain to the King, Dean of Salisbury, and Bishop of Norwich. 



REIGN OF HENRY THE THIRD. 

1216-1272. 

Robert de Aumari, Justiciar, 12 16. 

In 1225 he was one of the Justices Itinerant for the County, 
and was appointed in the following year to collect the quinzisme 
of the County ; and, as a reward for his assiduity in performing that 
duty, a fine was remitted which he owed for permission to plough 
up his property at Woodpery. 

He was UndersherifF of the County during the Shrievalty of 
Thomas Basset in 1207, and, his descendant, Richard de Aumari, 
or D'Amary, of Blechingdon, was Sheriff* in 1308. 

Alan Basset, Justiciar, 12 17. 

The third Son of the before mentioned Thomas Basset, of 
Headington. He was a personal favourite of the King, (Henry 
the Third), and was possessed of much property in the County. 
He died in October 1232. 

Philip Basset, Chief Justiciary, 1261. 

The name of Basset frequently occurs in connection with the 
administration of justice. Philip was the third Son of the last 
mentioned Alan Basset. He was made Governor of Oxford 
Castle, and also of Shirburn Castle. He was appointed Chief 
Justiciary in England in place of Hugh le Despenser who was 
dismissed by the King, but who, being supported by the Barons in 
maintaining that his functions had not ceased, waged war against 
his appointed Successor, and succeeded in burning his House 
and ravaging his property. 

Thomas 



6o 



Thomas Basset, Justiciar, 1262. 

Another of the same Family, being a grandson of Thomas 
Basset of Headington, and Nephew of Alan Basset. 

Robert de Beauchamp, Justiciar, 1234. 

Constable of Oxford Castle. He had the charge of the Manor 
and Park of Woodstock. The last trace of his judicial life is 
in 1242. 

Falco de Breautee, Justice Itinerant, 12 19. 

The record of his judicial acts does not equal that of his 
military deeds, for he is spoken of as a valiant Soldier to whom ' 
the victory at Lincoln was due. He had the custody of Oxford 
Castle, and was Sheriff of the County from 1216 to 1223. 

William Briewere, Justiciar, 12 17. 

He was first appointed a Justice Itinerant in 1187, and he 
acted in that Office throughout the reign of Richard the First, 
and in 1221 we find him mentioned as a Baron of the Exchequer. 
He was closely associated with four successive Kings. 

Sheriff of the County from 1191 till 1 194, and also twice in 
the Reign of John. 

Walter P'oliot, Justice Itinerant, 12 18. 

A native of Berkshire, but Sheriff of the County of Oxford 
in 1224 and 1225. He was possessed of Land in Oxfordshire 
granted to him by King John. 

Geoffrey Gibbewin, Justiciar, 12 19. 

He had land at Bix, (still called Bix Gibwen, in contradistinction 
to Bix Brand), the corn of which he gave to the Monks of 
Thame. His judicial acts were very few. 

Walter Giffard, Lord Chancellor, 1265. 

He was resident with his Mother, Sibille, in Oxford Castle, 
by permission of Henry the Third. He became Canon and 
afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells, and in October 1266 
he was translated to the Archbishopric of York, when he resigned 
the Great Seal. 

John 



6 i 



John db Plessitis, Justice Itinerant, 1 25 1 . 

Held the Title of Karl of Warwick for his life, He was 

named second among .six Justices assigned to hold pleas for the 
City ot London in 1251. Sheriff of the County of Oxford in 
1230, and the possessor of the Manors of Kidlington and Hook 
Norton, in right of his wife, Margery, the Sister and heir of the 
Earl o\ Warwick. 

John de St. John. Justice Itinerant, 1225. 

He held the Barony of Stanton Saint John, which Parish takes 
its distinctive name from his Family. In 1225 he was appointed 
a Justice Itinerant for this County, an Office which he held for 
five years. 

Alexander de Swerford, Baron of Exchequer, 1234. 

His name is derived from the Parish of Swerford in this 
County, where he was Vicar, and also, upon the presentation 
of the Abbot of Osney, Rector. He was much associated with 
the Bishop of Coventry as his private Chaplain, and in 1234 
he was assigned the rank of a Baron in the Exchequer, in which 
Court he had previously been a Clerk. 

REIGN OF EDWARD THE FIRST. 

1272-1307. 

Roger de Bello Fago, Justice Itinerant, 1305. 

Resident in Oxfordshire. A Justice for Warwickshire, and 
subsequently for Cornwall, and nine other Counties. Appointed 
a Commissioner to survey the obstructions of the River Thames 
from London to Oxford. 



REIGN OF EDWARD THE THIRD. 

i327- I 377- 

Ralph de Bereford, Justice Itinerant, 1329. 

He possessed property at Bourton, Milcomb, and Barford, 
in Oxfordshire, from which last place, (also called Bereford), 
his Family derived their name. 

John 



62 

John de Stonor, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, 1320. 

A lineal Ancestor of the ancient Family of Stonor in this 
County, now represented by my Lord Camoys. The Chief Justice 
was a distinguished Advocate during the reign of Edward the 
Second, and is frequently mentioned as engaged in prosecutions 
and defences on behalf of the King. He was appointed 
a Justice of the Common Pleas in 1320, and became a Judge 
of great note. In 1327, shortly after his re-appointment as 
Justice of the Common Pleas by Edward the Third, he was 
sent to Oxford with four other Justices to try some riotous 
Members of the University who had joined with the Inhabitants 
of Abingdon in committing an outrage on the Abbey of St. 
Mary, there. He received promotion to the rank of Chief Baron 
of the Exchequer in 1329, and, in the same year, to that of 
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. He died in 1354, and the 
Abbot and Convent of Dorchester granted him the especial 
right of sepulture in their Church, where there is an effigy of him 
in Judges' Robes. The arms represented on the Tomb are 
the same as those now borne by his descendant, Lord Camoys. 

James de Wodestoke, Justice of Common Pleas, 1340. 

Born at Woodstock, whence he took his name. Before he 
was seated on the Bench he was employed to raise money for 
the King in Oxfordshire. The Manor of Brize Norton belonged 
to him. He died soon after his appointment as Judge. 



REIGN OF HENRY THE SIXTH. 

1422-61. 

Sir John Cottesmore, Justice of the Common Pleas, 1429. 
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, 1439. 

Baldwin Brightwell was the Seat of this Judge and his Family. 
He was also connected with the County of Oxford by his marrying 
Florence, the daughter of Sir Simon Harcourt, of Stanton 
Harcourt, who was knighted for his bravery at the sieges of 
Terouenne and Tournay, and at "the Battle of Spurs" in 15 13. 
Sir John Cottesmore was raised to the Bench as a Justice of 
the Common Pleas in October 1429, and, after sitting in that 
Court for ten years, he was promoted to preside there as Chief 

Justice 



6 3 

Justice in 1439. He died on the 3rd of September 1439, and 

was buried in Baldwin Brightwell Church. The following 
lines, extracted from the monumental Brass there, give an 
eulogistic description of his character : 

"Solvitur in cincrcs Cottesmore namquc Johannes, 
Communis scctis Judex quondam Capitalis. 
Justiciam coluit, rebus fuit omnibus asquus, 
Juribus ecclesiae favit super omnia sanctas, 
Discutiens causas mira gravitate forenses, 
Quern ncc amor, nee opes, timor, aut odium superavit." 



REIGN OF EDWARD THE FOURTH. 

1461-83. 

Sir Robert Danvers, Justice of the Common Pleas, 1450. 

The Ancestors of this Family had considerable property in the 
County. Sir Robert was the eldest Son of John Danvers, of 
Cokethorpe, by his first Wife, Alice Verney, and married Agnes, 
the daughter of Richard Qiiartermaine, of Rycot. He sat as a 
Judge of the Common Pleas from the date of his appointment, 
(14 August 1450), during the previous Reign until his death in 
1468, having been re-appointed on the accession of Edward 
the 4th. 



REIGN OF HENRY THE SEVENTH. 

1485-1509. 

William Danvers, Justice of the Common Pleas, 1488. 

He was the half Brother of the last mentioned Judge, Sir 
Robert Danvers, being the Son of John Danvers of Cokethorpe 
by his second Wife, Joan, the daughter of William Bruly of 
Waterstock. He was promoted to the Judicial Bench soon after 
he attained the degree of Serjeant at Law. 

REIGN 



64 

REIGN OF HENRY THE EIGHTH. 

1509-47. 

Robert Brudenell, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, 1521. 

An Ancestor of this Judge, Edmund Brudenell, attained to 
legal eminence as Attorney General to Richard the Second ; — 
and he and the present Judge, Robert Brudenell, proceed from 
an ancient Family which was established at Deddington. Robert 
Brudenell was first promoted to the Judicial rank in the Court 
of King's Bench in 1507, and, on the accession of Henry the 8th, 
he was transferred to the Common Pleas, where he sat for twelve 
years, and where he presided, until his death, for a further period 
of ten years after his appointment as Chief Justice in 152 1. 

John Baldwin, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, 1535. 
He was the Son of an Ancestor of Lord Dormer, and was 
possessed of several Manors and Farms in Oxfordshire. 

REIGN OF JAMES THE FIRST. 

1603-25. 

Sir Laurence Tanfield, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, 
1607. 

Resident at Burford Priory, and the Owner of the Manor of 
Great Tew, and other property in the County. 

After a successful career at the Bar, he was promoted from the 
rank of Serjeant at Law to be a Judge of the King's Bench, in 
January 1606, and on 25 June of the following year, he was 
appointed to preside over the Court of Exchequer as Chief Baron, 
and he fulfilled the duties of that office until his death on 30 April 
1625. A costly Monument on the north side of the Chancel 
in Burford Church, where he was buried, commemorates his death. 

He was the Father in law of the celebrated Lord Falkland, 
to whom (when Sir Henry Cary) his only daughter was married. 

Sir David Williams, Justice of the King's Bench, 1604. 

He was possessed of the Manors of ShifFord and Golofers, and 
Lands at Hams Court in the Parish of Bampton ; and he 
purchased the Cokethorpe Estate. 

Sir 



65 

Sir Thomas Coventry, Justice of the Common Pleas, 1606. 
He was Son of Richard Coventry Esquire of Cassington, 
Oxfordshire. 

Sir John Croke, Justice of the King's Bench, 1607. 

Eldest Son of Sir John Croke of Studley Priory, who married 
the daughter of Sir Alexander Unton, and represented the County 
of Buckingham in Parliament. His Wife was Catherine the 
daughter of Sir Michael Blount, of Maple Durham. The present 
Judge was conspicuous for his legal knowledge and ability as an 
Advocate, and was eminent on the Judicial Bench during a period 
of thirteen years. After performing the successive duties of 
Recorder of London, and Member of Parliament for that City and 
Windsor, he was appointed a Judge of the King's Bench in June 
1607, and continued in that Office until his death in January 
1620. He was buried at Chilton, in Buckinghamshire, with 
many Ancestors of his Family. 



REIGN OF CHARLES THE FIRST. 

1625-49. 



Sir George Croke, Justice of the Common Pleas, 1625. 

Brother of the last mentioned Judge. Before entering at 
Christ Church, Oxford, he had been educated at the Grammar 
School at Thame. The well deserved reputation he had for 
profound learning, and accurate reporting in the Law Courts 
during the reigns of Elizabeth and James, procured his elevation 
to the Bench on 11 February 1625. King James died six 
weeks after his appointment as Justice of the Common Pleas, 
but Charles the First renewed his appointment, on His accession, 
and in October 1628 transferred him to the King's Bench, 
where he sat for twelve years. It is memorable that Sir George 
Croke conscientiously decided with a minority of Judges against 
the Crown and in favour of Hampden in the great case of the 
Ship money. In 16 15 he purchased the Estate of Waterstock 
(now possessed by John Henry Ashhurst Esquire), and six years 
later he purchased Studley Priory of John Croke, the Son of the 
last mentioned Judge. He died at Waterstock on 16 February 

1641 



66 



1641, an Octogenarian, having spent many years of his life 
there, and a handsome monument was erected to his memory 
in the Church. 

Sir John Walter, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, 1625. 

Resident at Godstow, in Oxfordshire, in a House which was 
destroyed in the lifetime of this Judge, to prevent it, in the Civil 
Wars, falling into the hands of the Rebels. He was also resident 
at Sarsden in this County. Having been educated at Brasenose 
College, he was selected for the distinguished post of Counsel 
to the University of Oxford, and, in 16 19, he was appointed 
Attorney General to Prince Charles, and the order of Knighthood 
conferred upon him. On 12 May 1625 he was promoted to 
fill the place of Sir Laurence Tanfield, as Chief Baron of the 
Exchequer. He appears to have discharged the duties of that 
post for five years, when, in consequence of some unaccountable 
ofFence taken by the King, he was prohibited from sitting as 
Judge, and, his protests unavailing, he retired from judicial life. 
He was buried at Woolvercot, Oxfordshire, where an elaborate 
monument was erected to him and his two Wives. 

Sir James Whitelock, Justice of the King's Bench, 1624. 

Although in strictness this Judge cannot be claimed either 
as a Native of or a resident in Oxfordshire, it may be pardonable 
to include him in this List, when we are reminded of his 
associations with the County, of his intimate connection with 
both the above mentioned Judges Croke, and of his Estate of 
Fawley Court being partly, and altogether practically, in 
Oxfordshire. 

Sir James Whitelock graduated at Saint John's College, 
Oxford, of which Society he became a Fellow, and he long 
resided in College. He represented the Borough of Woodstock 
in Parliament in 1609, and again in 16 14, and 1621, having 
previously been elected Recorder. He was appointed a Justice 
of the King's Bench on 18 October 1624, and performed the 
duties of that Office until his death, which took place at his 
Mansion at Fawley Court on 22 June 1632. 



PERIOD 



6 7 

PERIOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH. 
1649-60. 

Nathaniel Fiennes, Commissioner of the Great Seal, 1656. 

Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes was the second Son of William, 
Lord Saye and Sele, and was born at Broughton in 1608. He 
represented Banbury in Parliament in 1640, Oxfordshire in 1654, 
and the University of Oxford in 1656. He held the rank of 
Colonel in the Parliamentary Army, but his character and repu- 
tation are not unstained. However, it is not on account of his 
military notoriety that he is mentioned here, but as a person to 
whom Oliver Cromwell entrusted the Great Seal on 15 June 
1656, and in the custody of which he was re-instated by the 
Protector, Richard Cromwell, after Oliver's death. He retained 
the post of Lord Commissioner until the Long Parliament. 

Sir William Lenthall, Master of the Rolls, 1649. 

The fame of Sir William Lenthall is rather parliamentary then 
judicial. Although he filled the Office of Master of the Rolls 
during the whole period from the death of Charles the First to the 
Restoration of Charles the Second, he is better known to posterity 
as Speaker Lenthall. 

He was born in June 159 1 at his Father's House at Henley on 
Thames, and, having received the early part of his education at 
Thame School, he was sent to St. Alban Hall, Oxford, which 
he left in 1609 for the legal training of Lincoln's Inn, without 
graduating at Oxford. 

In 1639 he represented Woodstock in Parliament, having been 
previously Recorder of that Borough, which honorable office his 
descendant Frank Kyffin Lenthall Esquire now (1869) holds. 
In the Parliament of 1640 he was chosen Speaker, an Office 
which Cromwell forcibly compelled him to vacate in April 
1653, but to which he was re-elected in September 1654, when 
he was returned as Member for the County of Oxford. He 
again represented Oxfordshire in the next Parliament of 1656, 
when he played a conspicuous part in endeavouring by plausible 
arguments to induce Cromwell to assume the title of King. He 
sat in. the upper House under the title of William, Lord Lenthall, 
in the Parliament summoned by the Protector Richard Cromwell, 
but soon returned to the Chair of the Speaker. He was Keeper 

of 



68 

of the Great Seal for a short time. He died at his Residence, 
Burford Priory, Oxfordshire, on ist September 1661, and was 
buried at Burford, For some further history of the Lenthall 
Family the Reader is referred to a List of the Sheriffs of 
Oxfordshire compiled by Mr. John M. Davenport, in 1868. 

Bulstrode Whitelock, Commissioner of the Great Seal, 
1648. 

The only Son of Sir James Whitelock, and a Great Nephew 
of Sir George Croke, both of whom have been previously noticed 
in this list of Judges. 

Bulstrode Whitelock was High Steward, and Recorder of 
Oxford, and, as he is hereafter referred to as Chairman of the 
Quarter Sessions of Oxfordshire, a merely brief allusion will be 
here made to the judicial functions of this celebrated man. The 
extensive success of his career as an Advocate on Circuit, and 
in the Common Law Courts, was greatly impeded by the 
disturbances of the Civil War when he himself commanded a 
troop of Horse and was Governor of the Garrison at his own 
residence of Phillis Court, Henley. His industry as a Lawyer, 
and his parliamentary labours were rewarded by the two 
Houses selecting him as a Commissioner of the Great Seal in 
March 1648, an appointment which he continued to hold during 
the Protectorship of Oliver Cromwell until 1656, and to which 
he was re-appointed, in conjunction with Colonel Nathaniel 
Fiennes, on 22 January 1659, for the short period of four 
months. However, on the second expulsion of the Long 
Parliament, 1 November 1659, Bulstrode Whitelock was nomi- 
nated the sole Keeper of the Great Seal, and maintained his 
position until the Parliament met again. 

He died on 28 January 1676, having long retired from political 
life, and was buried at Fawley. Historians are greatly indebted 
to him for the incidents and details recorded in his autobiographic 
Memorials. 



REIGN 



6 9 

REIGN OF CHARLES THE SECOND. 

1649-85. 

Sir William Scroggs, Justice of the Common Pleas, 1676. 
Chief Justice of the King's Bench, 1678. 

The history of Sir William Scroggs' career presents no unusual 
example of the infamous ignorance and arrogance of the Judges 
of this Reign. He was born at Deddington in this County, 
where his Father was in business. Many calumnious accusations 
have been made against his low origin, but, however humble his 
Father's occupation may have been, he was in a position to send 
his Son to the University, for the future Judge graduated at 
Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1640. He was promoted to a Seat 
on the Bench of the Common Pleas on 23 October 1676, and in 
May 1678 he succeeded Sir Richard Rainsford as Chief Justice 
of the King's Bench, and the disreputable partiality and brutal 
effrontery of which he was guilty in performing the judicial 
functions of that Office, reflect great dishonor on his character. 
He was removed from the Bench by Charles the Second in April 
168 1, and died in October 1683, leaving a distinguished Family. 

Sir William Morton, Justice of the King's Bench, 1665. 

He married Annie, Daughter of John Smyth of Kidlington, 
Oxfordshire. He erected Almshouses at Kidlington to the 
memory of his Wife. Died 1672. 

Francis, first Baron Guilford, Lord Keeper of the Great 
Seal.00 

Lord Guilford was one of the great Law Luminaries of 
England. He was of noble birth, — the Founder of his family, 
Edward North, a Serjeant at Law, having been created a Baron 
by writ in the Reign of Henry the Eighth ; and the Lord Keeper 
was the second Son of the Honorable Dudley North who, late in 
life, became the fourth Baron North. Mr. Francis North was 
born in 1637 ; called to the Bar in 166 1 ; appointed Solicitor 
General in 167 1 ; elected Member of Parliament for Lynn in 



(a) By virtue of the Statute 5th Elizabeth cap. 18 the Lord Keeper of the Great 
Seal had "the same place, pre-eminence, and jurisdiction as the Lord Chancellor of 
England." 

l6 73 



7° 

1673 j made Attorney General in the same year ; in 1675 was 
raised to the Office of Chief Justice of the Common Pleas ; and 
in 1682 received the Great Seal from Charles the Second, (upon 
the Death of Lord Nottingham), and in the following year, was 
created Baron Guilford. " He applied himself very assiduously 
to the business of the Court of Chancery.' '( a ) Upon the death 
of Charles the Second in February 1685, Lord Guilford was 
retained as Lord Keeper by James the Second, but in July of 
that year he retired, in ill health, to Wroxton Abbey (which he 
had acquired in right of his Wife, and where he had long spent 
his Vacations), and died there in the following September, and 
was buried with great pomp in Wroxton Church. 

REIGN OF JAMES THE SECOND. 

1685-88. 

Sir Richard Holloway, Justice of the King's Bench, 1683. 

Anthony Wood describes this Judge as " living against the 
Blew-bore in St. Aldate's Parish, Oxford," and as the Son of 
John Holloway " a covetous civilian, and public Notary " there. 
As a Barrister he practised in Oxford, the City of his birth, and 
little was known of him in the Superior Courts. He was raised 
to a Seat in the King's Bench in September 1683, and bore an 
irreproachable character during the numerous public Trials of his 
time. Having incurred the King's displeasure, by conscientiously 
pronouncing the Petition of the Seven Bishops not to be a seditious 
libel, he forfeited his judicial post on 4 July 1688, and passed the 
remainder of his life in retirement at Oxford, where he was buried. 

He was a Fellow of New College, and was the Official and 
Registrar of the Archdeacon of Berks. In 1695 he drew the 
Will of Anthony Wood, the Historian. 

REIGN OF ANNE. 

1702-14. 

Sir John Holt, Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, 1689. 
The name of Holt is alike an honour to the Judicature of the 
Kingdom, and to the County of which he was a native. 

(a) Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors. 

He 



7 1 

He was born at Thame on 30 December 1642, and, after 
receiving his education at Abingdon School, he became a member 
of Oriel College, Oxford, but left the University without 
becoming a Graduate. He was conspicuously engaged in the 
State Trials with which the Courts were occupied during the 
two preceding Reigns, and he was selected to advise the Lords 
of the Council on many important matters of that unsettled age. 
His profound knowledge as a Lawyer, and his pre-eminent talent 
as an Advocate were rewarded by promotion to the degree of the 
Coif, and the King's Sergeantcy, and by the honor of Knighthood. 
On 17 April 1689 he was chosen to preside over the Court of 
King's Bench, and, for the period of 21 years in which Sir John 
Holt was Chief Justice, cc the administration of justice was 
distinguished by learning, sagacity, and integrity, and freed from 
the suspicion of private bias or courtly dictation," in happy 
contrast to the experience of the preceding Reigns. An amusing 
anecdote is told, having reference to the youthful extravagancies 
of Sir John Holt. It is quoted in Mr. Foss' words. " In a trial 
of an old woman for witchcraft, the Witness against her declared 
that she used a c spell.' c Let me see it,' said the Judge. A 
scrap of parchment being handed to him, he asked the old woman 
how she came by it, and on her answering, 'A young Gentleman, 
my Lord, gave it to me to cure my Daughter's ague,' inquired 
whether it cured her. c Oh ! yes, my Lord, and many others,' 
replied the old woman. He then turned to the Jury and said, 
' Gentlemen, when I was young and thoughtless, and out of 
money, I, and some Companions as unthinking as myself, went 
to this woman's House, then a Public one, and, having no money 
to pay our reckoning, I hit upon a stratagem to get off scot free. 
Seeing her daughter ill of an ague, I pretended I had a spell to 
cure her. I wrote the classic line you see, and gave it to her, 
so that if any one is punishable, it is I, and not the poor Woman.' 
It is needless to say that the Jury acquitted her." It is said that 
Sir John Holt lived for some time at Paradise House, Saint 
Ebbe's, Oxford. He died on 5 March 1709, during the celebrated 
Trial of Dr. Sacheverell. 

John Scrope, Commissioner of the Great Seal, 17 10. 

The Son of Thomas Scrope of Wormsley in this County, 
(long since and now the Seat of the Fane Family, who acquired 
this Estate by intermarriage with a Scrope). He was a Baron 

of 



72 

of the Exchequer in Scotland, but his judicial career in England 
was limited to the period of three weeks between 26 September 
and 19 October 17 10, during which interval he had the custody 
of the Great Seal as Lord Commissioner. His death took place 
in April 1752. 



REIGN OF GEORGE THE FIRST. 

1714-27. 

Simon, Earl Harcourt, Lord Chancellor, 17 14. 

Since the twelfth century the ancient and illustrious Family 
of Harcourt have flourished at Stanton Harcourt in this County. 
The Father of the subject of this notice was Sir Philip Harcourt, 
who married the daughter of the General of the Parliamentary 
forces, Sir William Waller. His son, the future Lord Chancellor, 
was born 1660, and, having received his education at Pembroke 
College, Oxford, he proceeded to the legal culture of the Inner 
Temple. His progress at the Bar was rapid, and he soon became 
distinguished in Parliament, and most prominently so on the 
occasion of the impeachment of Lord Somers. Directly after 
the Accession of Queen Anne, Harcourt was appointed Solicitor 
General, and was selected to accompany the Queen on Her visit 
to Oxford in August 1702. After an interval of five years he 
was made Attorney General, and^ being then unseated for 
Abingdon, he immortalised himself by his able and eloquent 
defence of Dr. Sacheverell at the Bar of the House of Lords. 
On the 19 October 17 10 Queen Anne entrusted him with the 
Great Seal, and he was styled Lord Keeper. A year elapsed 
before he was raised to the Peerage, and in rather more than 
another year he was styled Lord Chancellor, by the Queen. 
George the First also conferred that honour on him, but did 
not allow him to enjoy it long. After Lord Harcourt was 
deprived of the Seal (21 September 17 14), he principally devoted 
himself to literary pursuits, and in the latter part of his life gave 
much encouragement to Pope, whom he placed in the old family 
residence at Stanton Harcourt to expedite the translation of the 
Iliad. The Nuneham Estate, the present Mansion and Residence 
of the Harcourt Family, was first purchased by the Chancellor. 

Lord 



73 



Lord Harcourt died 28 July 1727, and his remains were interred 
in the Chapel at Stanton Harcourt " where twenty of Harcourts 
Barons bold lie buried." ( a ) 

Thomas Parker, Earl of Macclesfield, Chief Justice of 
the King's Bench, 17 10, Lord Chancellor, 17 18. 

Thomas Parker was born of an old Family in Staffordshire, but 
his purchase of Shirburn Castle and its Estate, in Oxfordshire, 
and his long residence there, and that of his Posterity, the succes- 
sive Earls of Macclesfield, completely identify him with this 
County. 

At the Bar he was most distinguished for the talented speeches 
he made, on behalf of the prosecution, upon the celebrated 
impeachment of Dr. Sacheverell. The honor of succeeding 
Sir John Holt as Chief Justice of the King's Bench was conferred 
upon him in March 17 10, and he administered justice in that 
Court with laudable wisdom. In May 17 18 Lord Macclesfield 
was appointed to preside over the Court of Chancery, with the 
custody of the Great Seal, as Lord Chancellor. For nearly seven 
years in that high position he displayed such great learning and 



(a) The Mansion at Cokethorpe Park (now the Seat of Walter Strickland Esquire), 
was built by Sir Simon Harcourt (afterwards Lord Chancellor Harcourt), in the Reign 
of Queen Anne ; and Her Majesty presented his Lordship with the carved-oak decora- 
tions of the Dining Room, and visited the Chancellor at Cokethorpe after the House 
was finished. 

This Estate was sold in 1755, to Maximilian Western Esquire, whose Daughter and 
Coheiress married Walter, brother of Sir William Strickland Baronet, of Boynton in 
Yorkshire. 

It may be interesting, with respect to the Harcourt Family, to give the following 
quotation from the paper headed 'Testamentary Eccentricities' in Sir Bernard Burke's 
remodelled Edition of the Vicissitudes of Families. 

"Another instance of the advantages of pedigree occurs in the will of William, last 
Earl Harcourt, who died in 1830. That nobleman was the lineal descendant and 
male representative of the great and historic house of Harcourt of Stanton Harcourt, 
founded in England in the 12th century by Ivo de Harcourt, brother of Robert 
d'Harcourt, Seigneur d'Harcourt in Normandy, ancestor of the Dues d'Harcourt in 
France. The two lines, Harcourt of Normandy and Harcourt of England, thus became 
separated seven hundred years ago ! Nevertheless when the last representative of the 
English branch, William, Earl Harcourt, was making his final testamentary arrange- 
ments, his thoughts turned to the source from which his lineage originally sprang, and 
he bequeathed to the French Marquis d'Harcourt and his heirs male, not only the 
beautifully situated estate of St. Leonard's Hill, overlooking regal Windsor, but also a 
sum of £80,000 to be laid out in land, to increase the property. His Lordship required 
however, that each inheritor should not be absent from England more than six months 
at one time, unless engaged in the civil or military service of Great Britain." 



abilitv 



74 

ability as have earned him the reputation of ranking as one of our 
greatest Equity Judges. Upon resigning the Great Seal, Lord 
Macclesfield retired to Shirburn Castle, where he principally 
devoted himself to superintending the education of his Son, the 
second Earl, who subsequently became famous as a Mathematician 
and Astronomer, and the Author of the alteration in the Calendar, 
and whose scientific acquirements were recognised by his 
appointment as President of the Royal Society. The Chancellor 
died at his London residence on 28 April 1732, and was buried 
at Shirburn. 



REIGN OF GEORGE THE SECOND. 

1727-60. 

Sir Francis Page, Baron of the Exchequer, 1718. Justice 
of the King's Bench, 1727. 

In 166 1 the Wife of the Rev. Nicholas Page, the Vicar of 
Bloxham in this County, gave birth to this unpopular Judge, 
who was stigmatised during his judicial life as " the hanging 
Judge," and who has left behind him a reputation which none 
can envy. Pope has thus characterized him : 

Slander or poison dread from Delia's rage, 
Hard words or hanging, if your Judge be Page. 

Soon after Page was made a Serjeant and knighted, he obtained 
a Seat on the Bench as Baron of the Exchequer in May 17 18, 
whence he was removed to the Common Pleas, and again to the 
King's Bench, in 1727, where he sat until his death on 31 
October 1741, having exercised judicial functions for the long 
period of twenty-three years. He lived at the Mansion which 
he built on his Estate at Steeple Aston, in Oxfordshire, and, in 
testimony of his pride and ostentation, Biographers record that 
he erected in Steeple Aston Church, during his life, the present 
monumental Structure containing full-length figures of himself and 
his second wife, the daughter of Sir Thomas Wheate of Glympton, 
under which Monument the Judge was buried. 



REIGN 



75 
REIGN OF GEORGE THE THIRD. 

1760-1820. 

Sir William Henry Ashhurst, Justice of the King's Bench, 
1770. 

That the Family of Ashhurst has been long established at their 
Seat at Waterstock is too well known to need any comment 
here. Sir William Henry, who was destined for the Bench, was 
born on 25 January 1725, being the Son of Thomas Henry 
Ashhurst, Vice Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and 
Recorder of Wigan, and his Wife Diana, the daughter of Sir 
Richard Allin, Baronet, whose Father in law was Sir Henry 
Ashhurst, Baronet. For the honorable period of twenty-nine 
years since his appointment, in succession to Sir William 
Blackstone, on 25 June 1770, Sir William Henry Ashhurst sat as 
a Judge of the King's Bench " preserving the character," to 
quote from a learned Biographer, w of an impartial Administrator 
of Justice, and a careful expounder of the Law, united with a 
benevolent heart and polished manners." The following couplet, 
reputed to be the composition of Lord Erskine, conveys a 
compliment which those who have studied his judgments and his 
portrait will appreciate : 

"Judge Ashhurst with his lantborn jaws, 
Throws light upon our English laws." 

The following description also, is given of him by a learned 
Contemporary. "Mr. Justice Ashhurst is a Man of liberal 
education and enlarged notions. His language has no peculiar 
neatness or brilliancy, but it is perspicuous, pointed, and clear. 
He reasons logically, and knows well how to winnow the chaff of 
eloquence from argument and Law." (Lives of eminent Lawyers, 
1790.) 

Sir William was twice one of the Commissioners of the Great 
Seal. 

He passed the last eight years of his life in retirement at 
Waterstock, where he died on 5 November 1807, and where his 
Grandson, John Henry Ashhurst Esquire, now resides. 

Sir George Nares, Judge of the Common Pleas, 1771-1786. 

He was the younger Son of Mr. Nares of Oxford, who was 

many years Steward to the second and third Earls of Abingdon. 

Sir 



7 6 

Sir George Nares was educated at Oxford, and called to the Bar 
in 1741, and in 1746 was appointed Town Clerk of Oxford, an 
Office which he held for ten years. He married Mary, Daughter 
of Sir John Strange, Master of the Rolls. " His professional 
merit must have been very conspicuous, inasmuch as in 1759 he 
received the degree of the Coif, and was made King's Sergeant at 
the same time." (Foss, Vol. 8, p. 348.) In May 1768 he was 
elected Member of Parliament for the City of Oxford, and 
afterwards appointed its Recorder. His Election as M.P. was in 
conjunction with the Honorable William (afterwards Earl) 
Harcourt. And the unsuccessful Candidates on the occasion 
were the Honorable William (afterwards Earl) Craven, and Sir 
James Cotter, Baronet. His elevation to the Judicial Bench 
vacated Sir George Nares' Seat for Oxford, and he resigned the 
Recordership. He was succeeded in the former by Lord Robert 
Spencer, and in the latter by the Honorable Thomas Wenman. 
Sir George died in 1786, and was buried at Eversley, in 
Hampshire, where he had a Seat. One of his Sons (the 
Reverend Edward Nares, D.D.), was a Fellow of Merton 
College, Oxford, Regius Professor of Modern History, and the 
Author of several valuable and standard Works. 

Sir John Skynner, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, 1777. 

This Chief Baron was born in 1723, and was the Son of John 
Skynner of Great Milton in this County, who lived on an Estate 
which he had acquired by marriage from his Wife Elizabeth. 
He attained the silk gown of a King's Counsel in 1771, being 
then the Member of Parliament for Woodstock. In November 
1777 he was appointed to preside over the Court of Exchequer, 
and his administration of justice as Chief Baron was, during a 
period of nine years, characterized with great ability. He died at 
Great Milton in November 1805, and was buried there with his 
Wife, Martha Davie, who predeceased him. 

REIGN OF WILLIAM THE FOURTH. 

1830-37. 

Sir William Elias Taunton, Justice of King's Bench, 1830. 

This Judge was born at Oxford in 1773, where his Father, 

who bore the same names, held the Offices of Clerk of the Peace 

of 



77 

of the County, and Town Clerk of the City of Oxford. Having 
been educated at Westminster, he graduated with distinction at 
Christ Church, Oxford, and then became conspicuous as a learned 
and eloquent Lawyer. He succeeded Mr. Abbot (afterwards 
Lord Colchester), in the post of Recorder of Oxford, and was 
soon promoted to the rank of King's Counsel. On 12 November 
1830 he was dignified with a Judicial seat in the Court of King's 
Bench, where he fulfilled the functions of an upright and learned 
Judge until his sudden death on 11 January 1835. 



REIGN OF VICTORIA 

Since 1837. 

Sir Gillery Pigott, Baron of Exchequer, 1863. 

Sir Gillery Pigott is the last but one of the Judges who now 
can be claimed as an Oxfordshire, or rather quasi Oxfordshire Man. 
He was the Son of Paynton Pigott Esquire of Archer Lodge, 
Sherfield, Hants, and of Banbury, Oxfordshire, (who afterwards 
assumed the additional Names of Stainsby Conant), and of Lucy 
the Daughter of Richard Drope Gough Esquire of Souldern 
in this County ; and Sir Gillery passed much of his early life in 
Oxfordshire. He acquired a large practice as a Barrister on the 
Oxford Circuit, commending himself to every one by his amenity 
and learning, and in 1856 he was appointed a Serjeant at Law, 
with a Patent of precedence. And in 1859 ne was appointed 
Recorder of Hereford. In i860 he was returned a Member of 
Parliament for Reading, and in October 1863 Sir Gillery Pigott 
was raised to the Bench of the Court of Exchequer, and he holds, 
with becoming honour, the exalted position of a Baron of that 
Court. 

The Right Honorable Sir Robert Joseph Phillimore, 

Judge of the Arches Court, and Judge of the High Court of 

Admiralty, since 1867. 

He is the second Son of the late Joseph Phillimore Esquire 

D.C.L. of Shiplake House, Oxfordshire, an eminent Civilian, and 

late Regius Professor of Civil Law in the University of Oxford. 

Sir Robert was educated at Westminster, and Christ Church, 

Oxford. He was admitted a D.C.L. in 1839; represented 

Tavistock 



7§ 

Tavistock in Parliament from 1853 to ^57 J was for many years 
(in succession to his Father), Chancellor of the Diocese of 
Oxford) ; was appointed one of Her Majesty's Counsel in 1858; 
Queen's Advocate in 1862 ; and in 1867 Sir Robert became 
Judge of the Arches Court, and Judge of the High Court 
of Admiralty. He sustains these high, judicial Seats by his 
great classical attainments ; by his pre-eminence as a Civil, and 
Ecclesiastical Lawyer ; and by his Erudition in International 
Law. The patrimonial Estate at Shiplake descended to Sir 
Robert's Nephew, a Minor ; but Sir Robert has acquired an 
Estate in the same Parish, and passes his Vacations there, — the 
House being known as ' The Coppice.' 



THE 



THE 
MEMBERS of PARLIAMENT 

FOR THE 

COUNTY. 



8i 



THE 
MEMBERS of PARLIAMENT 

FOR THE 

COUNTY. 

M 

Parliament is derived from the French word parler to speak. 
It is the supreme Legislative Assembly of Great Britain and 
Ireland. Great Councils of the Nation existed in England under 
the Saxons and Normans. They were called by the Saxons 
Michel-synoth^ or great Council ; Michel-gemote or great Meeting ; 
and Witena-gemote, Meeting of wise Men. 

The constitution of Parliament, as it is now formed, was 
marked out as long ago as the 17th year of King John (A.D. 
1 2 15), in the Great Charter, wherein He promised to summon 
all Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Earls, and greater Barons 
personally, and all other Tenants in chief under the Crown ; 
and Writs were issued to the Sheriffs commanding them to 
return four Knights for each County ad loquendum cum Rege 
de negotio Regni^ — at Oxford. 

The Lords and Commons were originally one Assembly, but 
the date of their separation is not known. 

On the 24th of January 1258 (42nd Henry the 3rd), appeared 
the first rude outline of the present House of Commons. Again 
in 1265 two Knights from every Shire, and one or two Burgesses 
from every Borough Town, were summoned to assemble in 
Parliament at Westminster, in addition to the Barons and Clergy. 

(a) The Compiler desires to acknowledge the courtesy of the Gentlemen at the 
Crown Office, House of Lords, who permitted an examination of the Sheriffs' Returns 
from the earliest date extant in that office — the first year of Queen Mary. 

The antecedent Names (with the hiatus explained posted) were obtained, after much 
research, at the Library of the Society of Antiquaries, where the wonted urbanity of 
the Gentlemen of that Institution was displayed. 

The 





82 


The Constitutional Law of the Country, whatever it may 
have been in practice, was first pronounced by the Statute 15th 
Edward 2nd. In this Act the Legislative Authority was declared 
to reside in the King, with the assent of the Prelates, Earls, 
Barons, and Commons assembled in Parliament ; and from that 
time the real existence of that Body, and of the form of Govern- 
ment still subsisting, has been uninterrupted, excepting only 
during the period of the Commonwealth. 


ANNO. 
1297. 


EDWARD THE FIRST. 

William de Scalebrok. 




Henry de Bruly. 


I299. 


John de Elsfeld. 
John de Pratellis. 


1301. 


John de Elsfeld. 
Robert Pegars. 


I3O4. 


Roger de Borfeld. 


i3°5- 


William de Scalebrok. 


1306. 


John de Hinton. 
William de Scalebrok. 




EDWARD THE SECOND. 


1307. 


William de Scalebrok. 




John de Hinton. 


1308. 


John de Elsfeld. 
William de Scalebrok. 


1309. 


Robert de Arderne. 




John de Chaumpaigne. 


1310. 


William de Scalebrok. 




John de Elsfeld. 




1311 





83 




ANNO. 


• 




I 3 II. 


William de Scalebrok. 
John de Elsfeld. 




1312. 


John Bardolf. 
John le Mirie. 




I3I3- 


John Bardolf. 
Radolphus de Chastillon. 




i3H- 


Richard de Bere. 
Thomas Golafre. 




i3 I 5- 


John de Croxford. 
John de Chaumpaigne. 


• 


1316. 


John de Croxford. 
Richard de la Bere. 




1318. 


John de Bloxham. 
Thomas Blaket. 




1320. 


Roger de Nowers. 
John de Croxford. 




1321. 


John de Bloxham. 
Robert de Trillawe. 




1322. 


John de Harcourt. 
John de la Pole. 




!323- 


Gilbert de Elsfeld. 

William de Mareschall, of Crowmarsh. 




1324- 


Richard de Bere. 
John de Croxford. 




1325- 


John de Croxford. 
Richard de la Bere. 

EDWARD THE THIRD. 




1326. 


Roger de Nowers. 
John de Whitefeld. 


1327 



8 4 



ANNO. 

1327. Roger de Nouwers. 
James de Woodstock. 

1328. John de Brumpton. 

William de Mareschall, of Crowmarsh, 

1329. William de Legh. 
Robert de Moreby. 

1330. Roger de Nowers. 
John de Whitefeld. 

1 33 1. Richard de Williamscot. 
John de Lewknor. 

1332. James de Woodstock. 
Hugo de Berwicks. 

1333. John Golafre. 
James de Woodstock. 

1334. Thomas de Langley. 
John de Alveton. 

1335. Thomas de Langley. 
John de Alveton. 

1336. John de Alveton. 
Richard de Williamscot. 

1337. John de Alveton. 
Thomas de Langley. 

„ John de Lewknor. 
Thomas Attemore. 

1338. Thomas Attemore. 
John de Alveton. 

„ John de Croxford. 
Adam de la Fenne. 

1339. Richard de Hattecombe. 

Peyntour. 



1340 





8 5 




ANNO. 






1340. 


John de Croxford. 
Richard de Burncester. 




")•> 


Roger de Nowers. 
John de Croxford. 




)? 


John Golafre. 
Thomas de la Mere. 




I34I- 


Richard de Beaufoe. 
John Frelond. 




1342. 


John de Lewknor. 
Thomas de la Mere. 




J 343- 


Gilbert de Elsfeld. 
William de Mareschall. 




1344- 


Richard de Bere. 
John de Croxford. 




1346. 


Richard de Williamscot. 
John Laundele. 




!347- 


Richard de Williamscot. 
John Laundele. 




1348. 


Richard de Williamscot. 
Richard de Hattecombe. 




1350- 


Thomas de la Mere. 
Thomas de Langley. 




1352. 


John de Elsfeld. 




*353- 


Thomas de Langley. 




J354- 


John de Whitefeld. 




1355. 


Thomas de Langley. 
Adam de Shareshull. 




1356. 


John de Lewknor. 
Thomas de Langley. 


1357 



86 



ANNO. 

1357. John Stadeley. 

John Staffrideswida. 



1358. 


John de Nowers. 




Thomas de Langley. 


1359- 


Roger de Burghfeld. 




Egidius de Insula. 


1360. 


Thomas de Langley. 




Nicholas Poure. 


• 1361. 


Roger de Elmerugg. 




Nicholas Dammory. 


1362. 


Roger de Elmerugg. 


• 


John de Powers. 


• J 3 6 3- 


Roger de Elmerugg. 




Roger de Cottisford. 


1364. 


Roger de Elmerugg. 




Nicholas Dammory. 


*3 6 5- 


Nicholas Dammory. 




John de Trillowe. 


*3 6 7- 


Nicholas Dammory. 




-Roger de Elmerugg. 


1368. 


Nicholas Dammory. 




Roger de Elmerugg. 


1369. 


Roger de Elmerugg. 




Roger de Cottisford. 


1370- 


Thomas de Broughton. 


i37 2 - 


Gilbert Wace. 




Thomas de Broughton. 


J 373- 


Reginald de Malins. 




Richard de Adderbury. 


*375- 


Thomas Harcourt, Chevalier. 




Rober Simeon. 




1376 



«7 



ANNO. 

1376. Gilbert Wace. 
John James. 



RICHARD THE SECOND. 

1377. Reginald de Malins. 
Robert Simeon. 

1378. John Herle. 
Robert Simeon. 

1379. Reginald de Malyns, Chevalier. 
Edmund de Stonor. 



1380. 


John Herle. 




Thomas Blount. 


1381. 


Gilbert Wace. 




Roger Cheyney. 


1382. 


Gilbert Wace. 




John Harwedon. 


1383- 


Gilbert Wace. 




John Harwedon. 


1384. 


Gilbert Wace. 




Edmund Giffard. 


1385- 


Gilbert Wace. 




Roger Cheyney. 


1386. 


Gilbert Wace. 




William Willicotes 



1387. Richard Adderbur ^) >Chevaliers 

Gilbert Wace, f 

1388. Thomas Barentyne. 
William Willicotes. 

1389. Thomas de la Poyle. 
Thomas Barentyne. 



1390 





88 


ANNO. 




139O. 


William Willicotes. 




John Rede. 


1392. 


William Willicotes. 




John Adderbury. 


1393- 


William Willicotes. 


% 


William Bruly. 


1395- 


Thomas Barentyne. 




John Adderbury. 


1396. 


William Willicotes. 




John Golafre. 




HENRY THE FOURTH. 


J 399- 


Thomas Barentyne Esquire. 




John Wilcotes Esquire. 


1400. 


John Wilcotes Esquire. 




Thomas Chaucer Esquire. 


140 1. 


Thomas Chaucer Esquire. 




John Arches Esquire. 


1402. 


Thomas Chaucer Esquire. 




Thomas Wykham Esquire. 


1403. 


William Makheny Esquire. 




Peter Besselles Esquire. 


1404. 


John Droyton, Chevalier. 




John Willicotes Esquire. 


1406. 


Thomas Chaucer, Chevalier. 




John Willicotes Esquire. 


1407. 


Thomas Chaucer, Chevalier. 




John Willicotes Esquire. 


1408. 


Thomas Chaucer Esquire, Speaker. 


1409. 


Thomas Chaucer Esquire, Speaker. 




HENRY 



8 9 
HENRY THE FIFTH. 

ANNO. 

14.12. Thomas Chaucer Esquire, Speaker. 
William Willicotes Esquire. 

14 1 3. William Lile Esquire. 
John Willicotes Esquire. 

1414. Thomas Wykham, Chevalier. 
Thomas Stonor Esquire. 

141 5. Thomas Chaucer Esquire, Speaker. 

14 1 6. William Hole Esquire. 
John Willicotes Esquire. 

1419. John Dan vers Esquire. 
Richard Grevill Esquire. 

1420. John Dammeris Esquire. 
Peter Fettiplace Esquire. 



1422 

H23 
1424 
1426 
1428 

H34 

1441 



HENRY THE SIXTH, 

Thomas Wykham, Chevalier. 
Thomas Chaucer Esquire. 

Peter Fettiplace Esquire. 
John Dammeris Esquire. 

Thomas Wykham, Chevalier. 
Thomas Stonor Esquire. 

Thomas Chaucer Esquire. 
Thomas Stonor Esquire. 

Thomas Chaucer Esquire. 
Thomas Stonor Esquire. 

Peter Fettiplace Esquire. 
John Danvers Esquire. 

John Norreys Esquire. 
William Wykham Esquire. 



1446 



9° 

ANNO. 

1446. Robert Harcourt Esquire. 
Thomas Stonor Esquire. 

1448. Sir Edmund Hampden, Knight. 
Sir John Pury, Knight. 

1449. Sir Edmund Hampden, Knight. 
Thomas Stonor Esquire. 

1450. .Sir Robert Harcourt, Knight. 

Edward Rede Esquire. 

1459. Sir Richard Harcourt, Knight. 
John Stokes Esquire. 



EDWARD THE FOURTH. 

1466. Humphrey Foster Esquire. 
John Barentyne Esquire. 

1472. Richard Quartermayn Esquire. 
Richard Croft Esquire. 



HENRY THE EIGHTH. 

1542. Sir John Williams, Knight. 
Edward Bridges Esquire, 
(a) 



EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

1547. Sir John Williams, Knight. 
Richard Fiennes Esquire. 



(a) The hiatus in the Names (with some exceptions), between 1450 and 1542 is 
irreparable ; the Writs, Returns, and Indentures for this interval, of all the Counties in 
England, having been lost. The interval includes (with the above exceptions), the eleven 
last years of Henry the Sixth, the Reigns of Edward the Fourth, Richard the Third, 
Henry the Seventh, and Henry the Eighth's Reign excepting the four last years. 

1552 





9 1 


ANNO. 




1552. 


Arthur Dudley Esquire. 




Sir John Williams, Knight. 




QUEEN MARY. 


1553- 


Sir John Williams, Knight. 




John Pollard Esquire, Speaker. 


1554. 


Sir Leonard Chamberlain, Knight. 




John Pollard Esquire, Speaker. 




PHILIP and MARY. 


I554-- 


Sir Leonard Chamberlain, Knight. 




John Pollard Esquire, Speaker. 


1555- 


Sir Thomas Wenman, Knight. 




Edmund Powell Esquire. 


1557- 


George Owen Esquire. 




Thomas Denton Esquire. 




QUEEN ELIZABETH. 


1558. 


Thomas Bridges Esquire. 




Edmund Ashfeild Esquire. 


1562. 


Sir Francis Knollys, Knight. 




Sir Richard Blount, Knight. 


1571. 


Sir Francis Knollys, Knight, Treasurer of the Household. 




Sir Henry Norreys, Knight. 


1572. 


Sir Francis Knollys, Knight. 




Henry Knollys Esquire. 


1585. 


Sir Francis Knollys, Knight. 




William Knollys Esquire. 




1586 





92 


ANNO. 
I586. 


Sir Francis Knollys, Knight. 
Richard Fiennes Esquire. 


I588. 


Sir Francis Knollys, Knight. 
Sir John Norreys, Knight. 


1592. 


Sir Francis Knollys, Knight. 
Sir William Knollys, Knight. 


'597- 


Sir William Knollys, Knight. 
Sir William Wenman, Knight. 


1601. 


Sir William Knollys, Knight. 
Ralph Warcoppe Esquire. 




JAMES THE FIRST. 


1603. 


Laurence Tanfeild, Sergeant at Law. 
John D'Oyly Esquire. 


1614. 


Sir Anthony Cope, Baronet. 


1620. 


Sir Richard Wenman, Knight. 
Sir William Cope, Knight. 


1623. 


Sir William Cope, Baronet. 
Sir Henry Pool, Knight. 




CHARLES THE FIRST 


1625. 


Edward Wray Esquire. ( a ) 

Sir Richard Wenman, Knight. 


1626. 


James Fiennes Esquire. 

Sir Thomas Wenman, Knight. 


1628. 


James Fiennes Esquire. 

Sir Francis Wenman, Knight. 


(a) H 
of James 


id been Groom of the Bedchamber to James the First. Was Grandfather 
, Lord Norreys, first Earl of Abingdon. 

164O 



93 



ANNO. 

1640. James Fiennes Esquire. 

Sir Francis Wenman, Knight. 

1640. — 1653. (The Long Parliament). 
Thomas, Viscount Wenman. 
James Fiennes Esquire. 

1653. (The little Parliament summoned by the Protector, Oliver 

Cromwell). 
Sir Charles Worsley, Knight. 
William Draper Esquire. 
Dr. Jonathan Goddard. 

1654. (Commonwealth). 
Robert Jenkinson Esquire. 

Charles Fleetwood Esquire, Lieutenant General of 

Ireland. 
Colonel James Whitelock. 
Nathaniel Fiennes Esquire. 
William Lenthall Esquire, Speaker. 



COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENT. 

1656. Charles Fleetwood Esquire, Lord Deputy of Ireland. 
William Lenthall Esquire, Master of the Rolls, Speaker. 
Robert Jenkinson Esquire. 
Miles Fleetwood Esquire. 
Sir Francis Norreys, Knight. 

1658. Robert Jenkinson Esquire. 

Sir Francis Norreys, Knight. 
Henry Cary Esquire. 
Viscount Faulkland. 

The Parliament, begun 3rd November 1640, continued 
sitting till 20th April 1653, when it was dissolved. 
But, notwithstanding this dissolution, — and the 
summoning of no less than four Parliaments by the 
Usurping Powers, — this Parliament of 1640 was 

regarded 





94 




regarded as the legitimate one ; for, in the Commons 




Journal is this entry. "16 March 1659. A Bill 




of the dissolution of the Parliament begun at 




Westminster 3 November 1640, and for calling 




another Parliament 25 April 1660." 




CHARLES THE SECOND. 


ANNO. 


t 


l660. 


Viscount Wenman. 




Sir Thomas Wenman, Knight. 


167I. 


Sir Anthony Cope, Baronet. 




Sir Francis Wenman, Knight. 


1679. 


Sir John Cope, Baronet. 




Sir Edward Norreys, Knight. 




This Election was contested by Sir John D'Oyley and 




John Clerke Esquire. 


l68l. 


Sir Philip Harcourt, Knight. 




Thomas Horde Esquire. 




This Election was contested by Sir John Cope and 




Sir Edward Norreys. 




JAMES THE SECOND. 


1688. 


(The Convention Parliament). 




Sir John Cope, Baronet. 




Sir Robert Jenkinson, Baronet. 




• WILLIAM THE THIRD. 


1689. 


Sir Robert Jenkinson, Baronet. 




Sir John Cope, Baronet. 




Montagu, Lord Norreys. 




Sir Robert Jenkinson, Baronet. 


1695. 


Montagu, Lord Norreys. 




Sir Robert Jenkinson, Baronet. 

1698 



95 



ANNO. 

1698. Montagu, Lord Norreys. 

Sir Robert Jenkinson, Baronet. 



1699. 


Sir Robert Dashwood, Baronet. 

Vice Lord Norreys, called to the House of Lords as 
Earl of Abingdon. 


1700. 


Sir Robert Jenkinson, Baronet. 




Sir Edward Norreys, Knight. 




QUEEN ANNE. 


1701. 


Sir Robert Jenkinson, Baronet. 
Sir Edward Norreys, Knight. 


1702. 


Sir Robert Jenkinson, Baronet. 
Sir Edward Norreys, Knight. 


1705. 


Sir Robert Jenkinson, Baronet. 
Sir Edward Norreys, Knight. 


1708. 


Francis Viscount Rialton (afterwards Earl of Godolphin). 
Sir Robert Jenkinson, Baronet. 


1709. 


Sir Robert Jenkinson, Baronet. 
Vice Sir Robert deceased. 


1710. 


Sir Robert Jenkinson, Baronet. 
Francis Clerke Esquire. 


*m- 


Sir Robert Jenkinson, Baronet. 
Francis Clerke Esquire. 




GEORGE THE FIRST. 


1714. 


Sir Robert Jenkinson, Baronet, 
Francis Clerke, Esquire. 


1717. 


Sir Robert Jenkinson, Baronet. 
James Herbert Esquire. 




1722 



9 6 



ANNO. 

1722. Sir Robert Banks Jenkinson, Baronet. ( a ) 
Henry Perrott Esquire. 



GEORGE THE SECOND. 

1727. Sir William Stapleton, Baronet. 
Henry Perrott Esquire. 

1734. Sir William Stapleton, Baronet. 
Henry Perrott Esquire. 

1 741. George Henry Viscount Quarrendon. 
Sir James Dashwood, Baronet. 

1747. Sir James Dashwood, Baronet. 
Norreys Bertie Esquire. 

1754. Thomas, Viscount Parker. 

Sir Edward Turner, Baronet. 

This Election was contested by Philip, Viscount 
Wenman, and Sir James Dashwood, Baronet ; and, 
so strenuous was the Contest, that the Sick, and 
almost Dying, were carried to the Poll. 

This Election is memorable as the last great Contest 
between the Whig and Tory factions, and which first 
brought the famous Mr. Charles Jenkinson, (who 
afterwards became Earl of Liverpool), into Court 
favour and public notice, and procured him (by the 
introduction of him by Lord Harcourt to George the 
Third), at first the humble situation of a Clerk in the 
Treasury, from whence he rose by a regular gradation 
in 1762 to be Private Secretary to Lord Bute; in 1763 
to be Secretary to the Treasury in the administration 
of Mr. George Grenville, Grandfather to the Marquis 
of Buckingham ; in 1766 a Lord of the Admiralty under 
the administration of the Duke of Grafton; in 1767 
a Lord of the Treasury under the same Nobleman ; 
in 1778 Secretary at War under Lord North; in 1786 
created Lord Hawkesbury, and made Chancellor of 



97 



the Duchy of Lancaster by Mr. Pitt; in 1790 first 
Lord of Trade and Plantations under the same 
Minister; in 1796 Earl of Liverpool; besides holding 
for many years the valuable Office of Collector of the 
Customs in the Port of London ; and he at last retired 
from Office with the addition of an enormous pension 
for life. All this accumulation of wealth, fortune, 
and favouritism originated in his being what is 
commonly called * Squib Writer ' to the Court 
Candidates at this memorable Election. 

Lord Parker and Sir Edward Turner were the Whig 
Candidates, supported by the Duke of Marlborough, 
the Earl of Guilford, Earl Harcourt, and the Earl of 
Macclesfield, and by the Administration of that day, 
the Whigs being then in place ; and it was Lord 
Parker who first introduced Mr. Jenkinson to the 
Duke of Newcastle, at that time Minister, and 
procured for him his Grace's patronage. 

Lord Wenman and Sir James Dashwood were sup- 
ported by the Tory and Opposition interest, and by 
the Earl of Abingdon, and the Earl of Lichfield ; and, 
after a most violent and expensive contest, this 
Election ended in a double Return of all four Candi- 
dates ; and on the 23rd of April 1755, the House of 
Commons declared Lord Wenman and Sir James 
Dashwood not duly elected, but that Lord Parker and 
Sir Edward Turner were duly elected, and ought to 
have been returned. 

Lord Wenman and Sir James Dashwood were in 
what was called the old interest, distinguished as the 
Blues: and Lord Parker and Sir Edward Turner in 
the new interest, or Yellows. 

The Mob that espoused the new interest were, on 
some occasions, most tumultuous and indecent. Among 
other enormities they got into one of the Churches in 
Oxford, and, mounting the Pulpit, drank damnation 
to the last blue Parson that preached in that blue 
Pulpit. 

Many other strange incidents of this Election might 
be recorded. Some are given in Notes to the Compiler's 
List of the "Lords Lieutenant and High Sheriffs of 
Oxfordshire," of which the present little Work is 
intended as a handmaid. Suffice it to add one 

anecdote 



9 8 



anecdote only, here. A Mrs. W. being jealous of the 
attentions of her Husband to their Servant Maid, put 
poison into one side of a Pudding which was to come 
to Table, and marked the side, intending to apportion 
it for the Servant's Dinner. In carving however, Mrs. 
W. mistook the mark, and helped her Husband to the 
fatal quarter of the pudding. He ate it, and speedily 
died. For this she was tried, and condemned to 
death, and, at the time of the Election, was in Gaol 
awaiting her Execution. The Family commanded six 
Votes, in respect of Property in what is now Summer 
Town, near Oxford. They waited on each Candidate 
offering their votes to whichever could obtain the 
respite of the Convict ; and they succeeded in their 
object through the medium of a Peer in the County 
then very powerful with the Government. 



GEORGE THE THIRD. 

ANNO. 

1 76 1. Lord Charles Spencer. 

Sir James Dashwood, Baronet. 

1768. Lord Charles Spencer. 

Philip, Viscount Wenman. 

1774. Lord Charles Spencer. 

Philip, Viscount Wenman. 

1779. Lord Charles Spencer re-elected, upon being appointed 

Treasurer of the King's Chamber. 

1780. Lord Charles Spencer. 
Philip, Viscount Wenman. 

1782. Lord Charles Spencer re-elected, upon being appointed 
Vice-Treasurer, Receiver General, and Paymaster 
General of Ireland. 

1784. Lord Charles Spencer. 

Philip, Viscount Wenman. 



1790 



99 

ANNO. 

1790. George Spencer, Marquess of Blandford.OO 
Philip, Viscount Wenman. 

1796. Lord Charles Spencer. 
John Fane Esquire. 

1801. Lord Francis Almeric Spencer. 

Vice Lord Charles Spencer, appointed Postmaster 
General. 

1802. Lord Francis Almeric Spencer. 
John Fane Esquire. 

1806. Lord Francis Almeric Spencer. 
John Fane Esquire. 

1807. Lord Francis Almeric Spencer. 
John Fane Esquire. 

18 12. Lord Francis Almeric Spencer. 
John Fane Esquire. 

18 15. William Henry Ashhurst Esquire. 

Vice Lord Francis Almeric Spencer, elevated to 
the Peerage as Baron Churchill. 

1818. John Fane Esquire. 

William Henry Ashhurst Esquire. 



GEORGE THE FOURTH. 

1820. John Fane Esquire. 

William Henry Ashhurst Esquire. 

1824. John Fane Esquire. 

Vice his Father (John Fane Esquire) deceased, who 
had represented the County in eight successive 
Parliaments. 



(a) Afterwards 3rd Duke of Marlborough. -In 1806 he was called up, by Writ, to 
the House of Peers and placed in his Father's Barony of Spencer. 

1826 



IOO 



ANNO. 

1826. William Henry Ashhurst Esquire. 

John Fane Esquire. 

This Election was contested by George Frederick 
Stratton Esquire. 



WILLIAM THE FOURTH. 

1830. John Fane Esquire. 

Montague Bertie, Lord Norreys. 

This Election was contested by Sir George Dashwood, 
Baronet. 

1831. George Granville Harcourt Esquire. 
Major Richard Weyland. 

This Election was contested by Lord Norreys. 

1832. George Granville Harcourt Esquire. 

Major Richard Weyland. 

Montague Bertie, Lord Norreys. 

This was the first Election after the Reform Act 
(2nd William 4th chapter 45), which added a third 
Member to the County. 

1835. George Granville Harcourt Esquire. 
Major Richard Weyland. 
Montague Bertie, Lord Norreys. 



QUEEN VICTORIA. 

1837. Montague Bertie, Lord Norreys. 

George Granville Harcourt Esquire. 

Thomas Augustus Wolstenholme Parker Esquire, 

(afterwards Viscount Parker, and now Earl of 

Macclesfield). 

This Election was contested by Thomas Stonor 
Esquire (now Lord Camoys). 

1841 



IOI 



ANNO. 

1 84 1. Montague Bertie, Lord Norreys. 

George Granville Harcourt Esquire. 
Joseph Warner Henley Esquire. 

1847. Montague Bertie, Lord Norreys. 

George Granville Harcourt Esquire. 
Joseph Warner Henley Esquire. 

1852. The Right Honorable Joseph Warner Henley re-elected, 
on being appointed President of the Board of Trade. 

1852. The Right Honorable Joseph Warner Henley. 
Lieutenant Colonel John Sidney North. 
George Granville Harcourt Esquire. 

This Election was contested by Lord Norreys. 

1857. The Right Honorable Joseph Warner Henley. 
George Granville Harcourt Esquire. 
Lieutenant Colonel John Sidney North. 

1858. The Right Honorable Joseph Warner Henley re-elected, on 

being again appointed President of the Board of Trade. 

1859. The Right Honorable Joseph Warner Henley. 
George Granville Harcourt Esquire. 
Lieutenant Colonel John Sidney North. 

1862. Lieutenant Colonel John William Fane. 

Vice George Granville Harcourt Esquire deceased. 
This Election was contested by Sir Henry William 
Dashwood, Baronet. 

1865. The Right Honorable Joseph Warner Henley. 
Lieutenant Colonel John Sidney North. 
Lieutenant Colonel John William Fane. 

1868. The Right Honorable Joseph Warner Henley. 
Lieutenant Colonel John Sidney North. 
William Cornwallis Cartwright Esquire. 

This was the first Election after the second Reform 
Act (the 30th and 31st Victoria, chapter 102), which 
opens an era pregnant with great events. 

THE 



THE 
CHAIRMEN of QUARTER SESSIONS. 



10 5 



THE 
CHAIRMEN of QUARTER SESSIONS. 



The Justices are descended from the ancient Conservators 
of the Peace. 

The term " Sessions of the Peace" is used to designate 
a Sitting of Justices of the Peace for the execution of those 
powers which are confided to them by the Sovereign's 
Commission of the Peace under the great Seal, and by numerous 
Statutes. The Quarter Sessions is a Court of Record. The 
Chairman is the chosen President of the Court, and guides it 
in its deliberations ; though, upon a division of opinion in any 
case, and an equality of votes, the Chairman has no casting 
vote ; — for, Inter Pares non est potest as. The Office of Chairman 
of Quarter Sessions is a highly honorable one, and in every 
County confers distinction upon its holder. 



The Muniments of the County of Oxford (in the Office of 
the Clerk of the Peace), from which the names of the Chairmen 
might have been collected, — commence only with the date of 
1687. It is conjectured that the earlier Documents were 
destroyed, or otherwise miscarried, at the Revolution. 

There appears to have been no permanently appointed Chairman 
prior to 1771. During the preceding Century and a half, the 
duties of the chair were exercised principally, (in chronological 
order), by Bulstrode Whitelock( a ) Esquire, of Fawley Court, 

(a) Aikin's Memoirs of the Court of Charles the First, Vol. I p. 373. 

The following is Mr. Whitelock's own account of his introduction to the Chair. 

" 1635. At the Quarter Sessions at Oxford I was put into the Chair in Court, though 
I was in coloured Clothes, a sword by my side, and a falling band, which was unusual for 
Lawyers in those days ; and in this garb I gave the Charge to the Grand Jury. I took 
occasion in this place to enlarge myself upon the point of jurisdiction of the temporal 

a Member 



io6 



(a Member of Saint John's College and an eminent Barrister 
on the Oxford Circuit), William Pudsey Esquire, Richard 
Powell Esquire, Thomas Carter Esquire (for a long period), 
William Wright Esquire, Sir Sebastian Smythe, Richard Carter 
Esquire, Henry Beeston Esquire, Charles Crispe Esquire, John 
Wright Esquire, John Lenthall Esquire, The Reverend Thomas 
Pardo D.D., Thomas Blackall Esquire, and the Reverend 
Theophilus Leigh D.D. The appointed place for holding the 
Quarter Sessions (after the destruction of the ancient County 
Hall, which stood on a site contiguous to the present one), 
was, up to 175 1, the old Town Hall, a small Building 
in Saint Aldate's Street, Oxford. But the Records show 
that during parts of the 17th and 18th Centuries Ad- 
journments of the Court of Quarter Sessions were made 
variously (amongst other places), to Sir John Walter's House 
at Sarsden ; the Cross Inn in Oxford ; the George Inn at 
Burford -> the White Hart, Chipping Norton ; the Bowling 
Green House at Bicester ; and the Salutation at Witney. In 
1 75 1 the present Town Hall in Oxford was built ; and the City 
courteously allowed the use of it for the Assizes and Quarter 
Sessions of the County until 1841, when the present County 
Hall was erected. 



" Courts in matters Ecclesiastical, and the antiquity thereof; which I did the rather, 
because the Spiritual Men began in those days to swell higher than ordinary, and to 
take it as an injury to the Church that any thing savouring of the Spirituality should be 
within the cognizance of ignorant laymen ; yet 1 was wary in my expressions, and so 
couched the matter as it might seem naturally to arise from the subject of the discourse, 
and not to be brought in purposely, and by head and shoulders. The Gentlemen and 
Freeholders seemed well pleased with my Charge, and management of the business of 
the Sessions, and said that they perceived that one might speak as good sense in a 
falling band as in a ruff, and they treated me at that time, and at all times afterwards 
when I waited on them, with extraordinary respect and civility." — W/iitelock's Memorials, 
Oxford Edition. 

Lord Campbell (Lives of the Chancellors, Vol. 3 p. 20), writes — " Whitelock passed 
his Vacations in Oxfordshire, affecting while there merely to be*a Country Squire j yet, 
from his knowledge of the Law, he was called upon to preside as Chairman of the 
Justices." 

In January 1643 Whitelock was named one of the Commissioners to carry propositions of 
peace to the King at Oxford. At an Inn there, some of the Officers of the Royal Army 
having quarrelled with the Commissioners' Servants, Whitelock "collared a great Mastiff 
Officer, and took his sword from him." — Lord Campbell. 

In 1648 Whitelock was appointed one of the three Lords Commissioners of the 
Great Seal. 

CHAIRMEN 



io 7 

CHAIRMEN. 

177 1. — 77. Francis Burton Esquire. 

Educated at Christ Church, Oxford. 

1778.-1808. Sir Christopher Willoughby, Baronet. 

D.C.L. of the University of Oxford ; and created a 
Baronet in 1794. 

William Vanderstegen Esquire was 
Assistant Chairman, and took an active part in the 
County business, up to 1797, the year in which he 
died. He was educated at St. John's College, Oxford, 
and was a distinguished Member of the University. 

1808. — 18. John Coker Esquire. 

Educated at New College, Oxford, of which Society 
he was a Fellow. And he was a D.C.L. of the 
University. 

1 8 19. — 22. John Atkyns Wright Esquire. 

Educated at Exeter College, Oxford, and called to the 
Bar. D.C.L. of the University of Oxford. 

1822. — 46. William Henry Ashhurst Esquire. 

Educated at Charter House, and Worcester College, 
Oxford. D.C.L. of the University. 

1846. — 63. The Right Honorable Joseph Warner Henley. 
Educated at Magdalen College, Oxford. D.C.L. of 
the University. 

Since 1864. Hugh Hamersley Esquire. 

Educated at Harrow, and Trinity College, Cam- 
bridge. 

And with him is associated, as Vice-Chairman, 
Charles Edward Thornhill Esquire, 
a learned Barrister, educated at Rugby, and Christ 
Church, Oxford, and afterwards of Lincoln's Inn. 



COUNTY 



I 1 I 



COUNTY COURT JUDGES. 



The County Courts (instituted in 1846, under the Statute 
9th and 10th Victoria chapter 95), are Tribunals intended 
not only to bring Justice to every Man's door, but to supply 
the place of the Schyremote, or ancient County Court, and of 
a great variety of inferior Courts in different Localities ; such 
as Courts of Request, Courts of Conscience, &c. The County 
Courts are essentially local Courts ; and the Legislature has, 
from time to time, wisely extended their jurisdiction, so that the 
County Court embraces (in addition to Suits for debts), 
Bankruptcy cases, certain Testamentary matters, regulations of 
Charities, and Suits in Equity. And, the Courts being presided 
over by learned Men of long experience and eminence at the 
Bar, — command the entire respect and confidence of the Public. 



The first and present respected Judge of the Oxford County 
Court is 

John Billingsley Parry Esquire qx. 



REVISING 



REVISING BARRISTERS. 



[I 5 



REVISING BARRISTERS. 



Previously to the Reform Act of 1832 (2nd William the 
4th chapter 45), the Land Tax Assessments deposited with 
the Clerk of the Peace were the criteria of the right of 
Persons to vote at a County Election. Since that date the 
Qualifications have been expanded, but those Persons only are now 
entitled to vote whose Names are enrolled upon the annually 
compiled Register of Electors ; — and the Lists of Names of 
which the Register is composed are scrutinised or revised by 
appointed Barristers (who make Circuits of the Counties), 
before the Register is formed. The Compiler was a Pupil 
in the Office of his Predecessor, the then Clerk of the Peace, 
at the time of the contested Election for Oxfordshire in June 
1826, which occurred after an interval of 72 years from the 
preceding Contest ; and the proceedings of that Election, as 
contrasted with those which now regulate this Ordeal, — will 
never be effaced from the Compiler's memory. All the 
Electors of the County who voted, were polled in Booths 
erected in Broad Street, Oxford ; — and, at the back of these 
Booths was a larger one in which the High Sheriff sat 
judicially, with his Assessor (Mr. Serjeant Russell), to decide 
upon such ex tempore questions of right to vote as the 
Undersheriff and his Deputies in the outside Booths referred 
for the decision of the Court. The three Candidates were 
represented by Counsel — (the Honorable Robert George 
Cecil Fane, — afterwards a Commissioner in Bankruptcy), — 
Mr. Cur wood, and Mr. William Whateley, — subsequently 
Queen's Counsel, and Leader of the Oxford Circuit \ — and 
the alternations of grave and ludicrous questions, — eliciting, 
at one interval, learned arguments, — and, at another, the 
platitudes and wit of Whateley, the urbane and gentle speeches 
of Fane, and the stirring eloquence of Curwood, — presented 
a scene which, to look back upon, seems invested more with 

the 



n6 



the elements of romance, than mantled in the truth of history. 
That scene too, was varied one day by Mr. Curwood fainting, 
from the heat, and being carried out ; and, each day, by 
personal bickerings, squabbles, and righting within the very 
precincts of the Booths, — intensified as each day's polling was 
drawing to its close. 



The Compiler vividly remembers one aged Voter being carried 
to the Poll at the Election in 1826, who had voted at the Election 
in 1754. 

The following are the Names of the 

REVISING BARRISTERS. 

1833. Robert Philip Tyrwhitt Esquire. (a) 
George Clive Esquire. 

1834. Edwin Maddy Esquire. 

Robert Bruce Chichester Esquire. 

1835. Edwin Maddy Esquire. 
Thomas Davies Esquire. 

1836. Joseph Ferrard Esquire. 

Thomas Denman Whatley Esquire. 

1837. ^(annually). Edward Gillam White Esquire.(k) 
1838./ John George Phillimore Esquire. 

1839. William Henry Stone Esquire. 
Robert Bruce Chichester Esquire. 

1840. Robert Bruce Chichester Esquire. 
Charles Alexander Wood Esquire. 

1841. ^(annually). John William Smith Esquire. 
1842./ William Frederick Beadon Esquire. 



(a) Now the respected Police Magistrate at the Marlborough Street Court, 
(b) Mr. White is a Native of Brightwell, Oxfordshire, of which Parish his Father 
(the Reverend Samuel White D.D.), was Rector from 1801 till 1841. 

1843 



"7 

_ Wannually). Edward Gillam White Esquire. 
1850. J 

_ ' V(annually). Arthur Edward Somerset Esquire. 
1852. J J n 

1853. Henry John Hodgson Esquire. 

V( annually). Edward Gillam White Esquire. 

> (annually). Robert Bruce Chichester Esquire. 

1868. Robert Bruce Chichester Esquire. 
William Johnstoun Neale Esquire. 



CLERKS 



CLERKS OF THE PEACE. 



12 1 



CLERKS OF THE PEACE. 

The Custos Rotulorum of the County appoints the Clerk of 
the Peace, — whose Office is a freehold one ; held ad vitam, aut 
culpam. The original date of the Office is not known, but 
the first Commission of the Peace having been granted by- 
Edward the Third (who began to reign in 1327), the Office 
is at least traced to that period under the present Title of " Clerk 
of the Peace ;" and it is assumed by the old Writers that the 
Office existed by the same, or a similar title, under the ancient 
system of Conservators of the Peace. (See Lambard's Eirenarcha). 
In the Year Book 2 Henry 7 pi. 1. this Officer is denominated 
not only Clericus Pacis^ but Attornatus Domini Regis. 

All the learning on the Office of Clerk of the Peace may be found 
collected in the Judgments delivered in the Case of Harding v. 
Pollock (a Writ of Error to the House of Lords), 6 Bingham's 
Reports p. 25. 

The Compiler has been unable to trace the Names of the 
Clerks of the Peace of Oxfordshire prior to the year 1684. 

1684-91. Richard Stevens Esquire. 

1691-97. Edward Prince Esquire. 

1697-17 16. Richard Clerke Esquire. 

1716-59. William Diston Esquire. 

1759—62. Harry Harmood Esquire. 

1763-67. Edward Ryves Esquire. 

1767-77. Thomas Walker Esquire. 

1777-81. Paul Elers Esquire. 

1 781-18 15. Sir William Elias Taunton, Knight. 

18 15-31. Thomas Henry Taunton Esquire. 

From 1 83 1. John Marriott Davenport. 



CORRECTIONS. 

Page 9 Note (b) dele full stop at sub 

Page 12 line 8 from bottom, for Britannias read Britannas. 

Page 14 line 12, for Neccromancer, read Necromancer. 

Page 78 line 3 dele ) 

Page 86 last line. For Rober, read Robert. 



OXFORD: 

PRINTED BY E. W. MORRIS, JUN. 






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